The Mickey Mouse Club's Guide To -+ Beige Boxing +- Written By : Cardiac Arrest [09/26/89] Introduction : Well, I KNOW that nearly everybody and their brother knows how ~~~~~~~~~~~~ to beige box, but what magazine is complete without a file as basic as that. Anyways, if you know how to beige box, and consider yourself master beiger, skip this and go on to the next file. Otherwise, I'll try to help beginners and maybe give some experienced boxers food for thought. What IS Beige Boxing : If you've ever payed any attention to the phone ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~ company, you've definately seen a guy in funny Ma Bell overalls running around with a funny-looking telephone with gator clips coming out the bottom. That's the Ma Bell version of the "beige box", called a Lineman's Handset. There are literally TONS of uses for a beige boxes, and they are simple to make, so it's usually a good introduction to the phreaking world. The Purpose Of This File : If even one person reads this file and learns ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~ something, I've accomplished what I set out to do (how cliche, right?). But seriously, I'm going to attempt to provide several easy methods of beige boxing. Some experienced beigers will definately see some familiar designs, but they might also see a new twist or two. I'll also include (hopefully) easy but complete directions of some of the possibilities for use. Back To Reality : Ok, on with the file. There are about as many beige box ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~ designs as there are uses, and with both, new ideas are always popping up. The designs in this file are by no means the best designs. I HOPE that they're some of the easiest, but who am I to say. Method #1 (Generic, Phone Destroying, Design) Required Materials 1 Telephone that you wont miss (it'll be a permanent beige box) 2 Gator clips 1 Telephone cord 1 Screwdriver 1 Pair of wire cutters 1 Soldering iron Solder Construction 1. Open up the telephone with the screwdriver. I can't give exact directions, because different models vary, but if you can't find the screws, try checking under the plastic plate that holds the phone number of the location. 2. Look at the modular jack (the thingy the phone cord plugs into). Find the red and green wires. These are the ones you want. Trace these wires with your finger to the screw that holds them down. Connect your phone cord to these screws, either by soldering them, or by wrapping them around the screw and tightening it down. 3. Run the telephone cord out the modular jack's hole. If you can't squeeze it through the jack, take the wire cutters the cut the wires leading to it, and yank it out. That should leave planty of room. 4. Re-assemble your phone. 5. At the end of the telephone cord hanging out of the phone, connect the gator clips to the same wires hooked up to the screws inside the housing of the phone. You can connect them either by soldering, or by splicing the wire to them (twisting them around the hole and praying that it holds). Method #2 (A spin-off of #1, but less permanent) Required Materials 1 Telephone (Don't worry, you wont wreck this one) 1 Telephone cord (You can use one of the springy ones that you always tangle up when you're on the phone) 2 Gator clips 1 Pair of wire cutters 1 Soldering iron Solder Construction 1. Cut the modular plug (the thing that plugs into the wall or telephone set) off ONE end of the telephone cord. 2. Find the red and green wires and connect the gator clips to these by soldering or splicing them. 3. Connect the other end (the that still has a plug) to a telephone. Method #3 (Similar to #2, but using a wall jack instead of a cord) Required Materials 1 Telephone (This wont get wrecked, either) 1 Modular telephone wall jack (This WILL get wrecked) 2 Gator clips 1 Pair of wire cutters 1 Soldering iron Solder Construction 1. Look on the back of the wall jack. You should see the typical red and green wires going into the back of the jack. Leave the end going into the jack alone, but trace them to where the go into the plate holding the jack. Cut them here (being sure, as I said, to leave the jack end alone). 2. Hook the gator clips up to the red/green wires. 3. Plug the phone into the wall jack. Testing Your Box : Ok, now that you've got one of the boxes described above ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~ (or a different one...I really don't care), you ready to go. Go outside, and on the side of your house, you should be able to find a small, approximately 3" X 3", puke-green box, with a bolt in the middle of it. Take a wrench (I'm not sure what the size is, but a 10mm wrench works for me, and that's all I really care about. But be careful, since it's not exact, you might strip it) and take off the bolt. You'll probably have to clear out some cobwebs, since it hasn't been used in a while. Inside the box, you should see four screws (one on each corner) with the typical red/green wires connected to them. (If you have two phone lines, the bottom screws will have black/yellow wires, if you have one phone line, the bottom wont have any). You can probably guess what happens from here--Hook the gator clips up to the screws. You should get a dial tone. If you didn't, make sure the connection is clean, that you're hooked up to the right terminals(screws), etc. If you still don't get one, you're screwed. That means there's something wrong with your box. If you do get a dial tone, you're probably guessing what you can do from here. Where Can You Use The Beige Box : You can use the beige box on several pieces ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~ of equipment. You can go to you're best friend's house and use it like I described. You can open up one of those ugly green boxes about 3' high in the back yard of every couple houses. Inside you'll see pretty much the same thing as at individual houses, only there's several houses running through the box, not just yours. I have heard that you can use a beige inside a Ma Bell manhole, but I crawled down one (not fun) and there was a huge plastic tube. You can see the telephone wires inside, but I have no idea how to get to them. There are definately more uses, but these are the ones I've been exposed to. The Box Of Many Uses : As I've mentioned, there are TONS of uses for beige ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~ boxes, and the ones I explain are merely the ones I've had some fun with. It's all basically the same, but there are some interesting twists. Conferences : Definately one of the funnest. It's easier to do than explain, ~~~~~~~~~~~ but I'll give it a shot. First, call up a conference service (I'll list them in a second). From here, you'll pretty much get instructions (at least on the ones I've used). Basically, you call up your buddies, tell them what's going on, and hit a key (usually *) and they get put into the conference. From there, you and all your friends can all talk to each other, trade codes, etc. Get the idea? (You can even call foreign numbers. On our conference, we voiced a user from Italy and called a hotel in Madrid for someone to practice Spanish....) Conference Services : 0-700-456-1000 0-700-456-1001 0-700-456-1002 0-700-456-1003 0-700-456-1004 0-700-456-2000 0-700-456-2001 0-700-456-2002 0-700-456-2003 0-700-456-2004 Tapping : If you hook up your beige box, and hear voices, the rightful owner ~~~~~~~ of the line is obviously using it. Well, that's about all there is to phone tapping. Just shut up and listen. L/D Calling : Hey, it's not YOUR bill, so go ahead and call your pal in ~~~~~~~~~~~ France. Maybe voice verify some users on your BBS.... Dial-A-Porn : Hey, wait!! How'd that get in here? ~~~~~~~~~~~ Conclusion : That's about it. I wont pretend to be an expert on beige boxes, ~~~~~~~~~~ so I wont say that these are the limits, or that these are the best methods. I'm just trying to provide a non-technical introduction to phreaking. Well, if anyone has any comments, questions, or come up with any new ideas, let me know. -=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=- Downloaded From P-80 International Information Systems 304-744-2253 12yrs+