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                       MMM MMM MMM MMM      MMM       MM MAIL
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                                  Copyright (c) Northern Telecom, 1993


Introduction To The Meridian Mail Voice Mail System

©1995 Cold Fire I've just read the distinctly un-Complete Guide to Hacking Meridian Voice Mail by Substance in issue #47 of Phrack. Now that I've managed to stop laughing I've written this file to explain more fully the characteristics and use of the Meridian Mail syste.

This file is not intended as a guide to hacking the system, any fool can do that, but to explain the workings of the system, as far as I've managed to work out anyway. While Substance might have little more on his tiny mind that how to abuse the system, most phreaks are more interested in understanding the workings of the system, then abusing it. I wouldn't mind so much if Substance was good at fraud, but he isn't, for example in his explanation of the mailbox options menu:

>Mailbox options 0 (Changes operator code (not useful)

Lets see, an option that allows us to change the number that callers are put through to when they hit zero for assistance. Could this be useful to someone looking to abuse the system? Perhaps this could be changed to an external number? Maybe this method of dialling out can sometimes be used when normal methods are blocked? But no, Substance in his wisdom decides to dismiss it as "not useful", rather than trying to find out what it does as any true phreak would have done. Maybe you'd better stick to your 3l33t code lines.

All I can say is Erik Bloodaxe must have been pretty desperate for stuff to put in this issue. And to Substance, this isn't meant to be a personal attack, but it's people like you who give hacking a bad name.

Now that I've finished slagging off Substance, on with the rest of the file. This is in no way a complete guide to the system, concentration mostly on the user interface. Many of the details in here may be incorrect, they've mostly being worked out throuh personal experience and knowledge of how other Voice Mail systems work. Feel free to correct me if I've got anything wrong. Also this files is only based on Meridian's in the UK, while there are probably no real differences between the UK Meridian's and US ones, there are slight differences in the set-up and defaults.

THE MERIDIAN RANGE

To start with Meridian Mail is an add-on for the Meridian range of switches made by Northern Telecom. Meridian switches are marketed and sold in the United Kingdom by British Telecom. The Meridian range consists of at least the Meridian Compact, Modular and Option models. The Meridian 1 Option system comes in various size 11/21//51/61 and 71. The Meridian Mail voice-mail option is for the Option models and so it is the Option models I will concentrate on here. Option11 will refer to all the Option models a I don't think there's any real software differences other than size between them.

The Meridian range is not cheap, the price of a Meridian Compact CPU is about 2000 UK Pounds from BT, however they can be got second hand for about 200 Pounds.

Because of its price the Meridian 1 Option 11 and Meridian Mail voice-mail option is only used by reasonably large companies. Also because the Meridian Mail system is an add-on for the main switch rather than a stand alone voice-mail system it is rarely used by companies rentingout mailboxes. There are far more suitable systems for this sort of use.

The Meridian Option PABX is supposedly difficult to program, It uses an OS called X11, so system administrators have can buy software for various platforms which can then be used to program the PABX through it's programming serial port. For example Switchview comes with its own database and runs under UNIX. It consists of modules, e.g. System Admin., Directory, Cable management, etc.

There is also the Meridian Administrator Tool, made by NT and available from BT, this runs under Windows on a 286+. This includes a terminal emulation facility for programming the parts of the system that MAT doesn't reach. The Meridian Communications Adapter with Visit software allows management of Voice-mail via Windows too.

Many company's use call loggers which record every call made through the system, including calls made through dial out facilities in voice-mail. This includes recording of the extension the call is made from. It is likely that where Calling Line Identifiation is available this information can be recorded too.

CALLER ID AND MERIDIANS

Note: this is all specific to UK Caller ID Option 11's connected via ISDN have CLI capabilities, and in theory will feed the information directly through to 2616 Digital Feature Phones and 2008 Phones equipped with display modules. However in practise this is not always the case, while the remote caller's number is displayed correctly on the Attendant console it is not passed through to the display handsets on DDI calls. BT suspect that this is a bug in the NT code. However they may have fixed this problem by now. I think that it's the same with LI on analogue lines, but I couldn't say for sure, most large Meridian systems are connected via ISDN30 anyway. As far as I know the Meridian Compact and Modular systems will not support CLI at all.

MERIDIAN MAIL

The Meridian Mail Voice Mail system is one of the most sophisticated, as well as answering calls it can handle intelligent call routing, distribution groups, out-dialling, dialling the sender of the message, etc.

Because the versatility of the Meridian Mail system it can be difficult to spot one. There are four main set-ups you might come across.

1) Log-In Box

This is the rarest set-up you're likely to come across, however it is instantly recognisable. Basically this is where an DDI number has been set up just to receive calls from people calling to collect messages. Obviously small companies do not want to pay for an extra line just for people collecting messages, especially if the volume of mail is low, so this is only likely to be on a DDI or 0800 line on a very large system. If you do find one of these you'll here a digitised women's voice say "Meridian Mail" followed by the normal login prompt: "Mail Box" if you don't enter a number you'll here "Please enter your mailbox number followed by square sign, For more information press star". Once you've entered a number followed by # you'll here "Password". For example try 0800 318409.

2) DDI Numbers

This will act just like an answer phone, e.g.: "Hi you've reached Mark Richardson at ABC Inc, unfortunately I'm away from the phone at the moment so please leave a message after the beep". If the outgoing message has not been recorded you might get "The person at extension XXXX is not available to take your call" or if they've recorded their personal verification "xxxxxxx is not available to take your call". Some times a company will not have used the more advanced features and the main number also be set up in this way. To access a mailbox from this set-up, while the outgoing message is playing press star. Once the beep has sounded just press # to stop recording. Once you've done this you'll get a menu giving you various options for recording a message. To get a list of all the options available press *. * is the help key in Meridian Mail if you get stuck at any time just press *. This menu is just a cut down version of the main mailbox menu. At this point to log in to a box press 81 you'll then get the log in prompt described above. A good example can be found on 0800 622581.

3) Call Routing

This is one of the most advanced features of Meridian Mail, and it allows the caller to decide where he wants be routed to, e.g. "Press One for Sales, Two for Technical Support", it can also be used to allow the caller to enter the extension number they want, e.g. "Enter the extension number and press square". If you get this sort of message just get to a mail box then follow the instructions as if you'd got through to a DDI box. You may also come across set ups where pressing * or # re-starts the message and pressing any other key gives a error message, and at the end of the message you get transferred to a mail box. In this case you must wait until you've been transferred into a mailbox then break in. An example of call distribution is on 0800 136214.

4) Outgoing Message Only

In this case there's nothing much you can do. Pressing * or # will just restart the message and any other key gives a "beep! That selection is not recognised, please make another choice" the outgoing message may replay a couple of times and will then disconnect you. This type of set-up is usually found on systems that have been abused or are owned by companies that don't want you to leave them a message, e.g. Banks who don't want to take responsibility for net getting messages. If you find one of these your best bet is to call during office hours and try and talk a DDI number for some dept out of the receptionist.

DIFFERENT TYPES OF MAIL BOX

Unlike many Voice Mail systems Meridian Mail has no Administrators Box. The Administrators box is usually a box that has special options, such as the ability to add new mail boxes, remove old boxes, change passwords etc. Unfortunately there isn't one on meridian Mail. When the administrator add mail boxes though they do have several classes of service they can use for boxes, e.g.:

Login Box
Callers dialling this ext. number will get a "Meridian Mail, Mailbox" prompt.
Distribution List
This is simply a box set-up so that a message send to it will be distributed to every on else on this list. This is so that individual users don't have to maintain their own personnel distribution lists.
Express Messaging
People calling this mailbox no, will get a prompt: "Express Messaging, Mail Box Number" This is to save people having to call your ext. no and wait for it to ring out before leaving a message.
Prompt Maintenance
Dialling this extension will give you a "Prompt Maintenance, menu ID" this allows you to change the prompts in menus
There's also a box that allows you to change peoples outgoing message and verification remotely, i.e. without logging in to their mailbox and changing them.

There are probably others but those are the most common.

MAILBOX NUMBERS AND PASSWORDS

There is no set length for mail box numbers and they range from 2 - 6 digits depending on the size and set up of the system. 4 digits is almost always the length though.

There is also no default mailboxes as there are on other systems, however 3000 is usually a good bet in the UK.

The default password on Meridian Mail systems is the message number. If this doesn't work try the mailbox number backwards, passwords can be from 4 - 16 digits long, and you can't use recently used password. You only have 3 tries to get the mailbox number right before it disconnects you. If the wrong password is entered too many times then the mail box will lock and even the real owner will not be able to get in. The number of tries necessary depends on the system in the UK its usually 9, you can tell a box has been locked if you enter the mailbox number and a password and it tells you to contact your system administrator after only one try instead of three.

DIAL IN PORT

Meridian Mail dial in ports are rarely found on DDI lines, but can be found by scanning extensions within the company, many other interesting things can be found this way too. They are always, in my experience 2400 baud modems and give no prompts. To get a prompt you need to press CTRL W this will give you a menu with two options. CONSOLE and MMI, select MMI (Man Machine Interface) and you'll get that nice Meridian Mail logo. From there press F1 to logon. After that you're on your own.

USING YOUR MAILBOX

When you login to your mailbox there are several greetings you may hear:

"your mail box is empty, to compose a message press 75, for mailbox commands press 8*"
"You have X new messages, message X from "
"You have no new messages, message one from "

Notes on the outdial features:

The dial through feature on Meridian Mail is relatively advanced allowing the system administrator to build sophisticated blocking masks. However this is not usually done. Most systems will either allow all numbers, just ones to their range of extensions or none at all. This means that if a company has extensions ranging from in the 2XXX range then Meridian Mail can be set up to disallow all numbers other than those starting with 2. However if the system has been set up badly then it may disallow all numbers, even those stored in the directory, so even dialling by name will be disallowed. As with most UK PABX systems the prefix for an outside line is 9, so from the mail box menu dialling 0+9+ACN will, if no call blocking is in place dial the given number If this does work it will almost certainly work for all UK Inland numbers. Most will also allowinternational calls.

Notes on distribution lists:

Users can have up to nine personal distribution lists, numbered surprisingly from 1-9, each distribution list can have from one to about one hundred mailbox numbers in it. To create a distribution list press 85, enter the number of the distribution list and press #; Press 75 to enter the mailbox numbers, 76 to delete an existing lists;2 to listen to a list or 4 to return to the main menu.

That just about covers all the basic facilities of the Meridian Mail system, if anyone has any questions on anything I've covered or failed to cover. Or any corrections to make I can be reached at ColdFire@paranoia.com