Presents:

                         *** The Phracker's Herald ***
                                   Issue #1

                          Bell Trashing and Mashing
                            Written by Touch Tone

       Welcome to the first issue of the all new Phracker's Herald. In this
issue, I would like to talk about Bell trashing and mashing. For those of you
new to this art, I recommend the file written by Phucked Agent 04. He gives the
beginner trasher/masher all the details needed to start.

       First off, let's talk about cans. Cans are the silver boxes on top of
telephone polls. They usually hold the lines to about 4 houses. Inside are
all the nescessary wires to connect/disconnect people's lines. Besides being
wires and other electrical paraphanalia, some cans contain lineman handsets.
Every phreaker should steal himself one of these. They come in very handy when
in cans/bridging heads, plus people's outside phone boxes. To get into a can,
you must climb up the telephone poll (obviously). There are no locks on a can,
so they are relitivly easy to get into. Just push up on the side lid, and then
pull. Presto! One great thing about cans is, when using a linemans handset, and
you are using ANI to find the numbers of the lines contained within, and you
come across a line which is not being used, you can basically hook it up for
your own use. Sure, you must do a little bullshitting with the telco, but if
you are good at that sort of thing, then you have it made.

       Bridging heads are other fun things to break into. You know, those
greenish type boxes you see sometimes in from on people's houses. Inside is
contained the lines of the surrounding neighborhood. They are harder to break
into then cans, because they ussually have large Master locks contained on the
handle(s). I find using a high temperature torch (which is nice and silent) to
burn through the lock just fine. If you can't get ahold of a torcher, then I
recommend a large crowbar. Bell is usually smart, and they put bridging heads
in front of houses or building, where an intruder would be noticed. So when
you break into a bridging head, do it at 2:00 AM, or around that time. Once
in the bridging head, you will see a mass amount of connectors for alligator
clips (at the end of lineman handsets). Most of the time there are test sets
just inside the door, so grab them and start performing ANI on all of them.
Write the numbers down for future reference. Also laying at the bottom of the
bridging head are manuals left by the telco employees. They usually tell you
how to use the test sets (lineman handsets). Nothing you couldn't figure out
on your own! But know Bell employees, they always need help with what they are
doing.

       We now come to the last part of mashing. The Bell manhole! These are
hard to find (in the Victoria area anyways). But if you do find one, they are
the phreakers haven. To locate one, look for a neighborhood with underground
lines (do this by looking in the air, and if you don't see any telephone wires
overhead, then chances are they are underground!). Then look for a steel plate
implanted in the ground with the Bell logo. Or in Victoria's case, one saying
BTC. You need a crowbar to get in them. Just stick the end of the crowbar into
the slot located on the side of the plate, and turn as hard as you can. It will
turn slowly, and then will suddenly slide. Then pull up, and the plate will
ease out of the ground. There is metal rings leading down acting as a ladder.
Just follow them down, and you will come to a stop in the ground. Side shelves
and many wires occupy the space inside the hole. On the shelves are many telco
manuals/binders. Grab these, as most of them have valuable info for the average
phreak. Grab the test sets and if you are feeling destructive, pull the wires
out of the wall. Go back up, and make sure you place the plate back over the
hole, and turn the latch again with the crowbar.

       Now for some trashing. This is one of my favorite hobbies. It is really
easy. To trash, just look for your local telco office, and look around at
night. There will be locked garbage bins. Just use a crowbar to break the lock,
and search through the bins. There are usually yesterdays lunches, and broken
pencils, etc. But that is not what you are looking for (unless you are Mexican
of course!). You are looking for old manuals or printouts. Grab anything
that looks of importance. You may not need it now, but later it can always
help. When I was hacking BCSC, I used alot of printouts from my trashing
expeditions. Yes, Bell knows alot more then just telephones. Search all the
bins, as you may not get another chance to do so. When Bell finds that their
bins have been broken into, they usually buff security with bigger locks. Much
bigger! Last time I checked the central office near our place, they had these
$90 Master heat proof locks. Sheesh, a real bummer to break. Alot of phreakers
learn about phreaking from trashing. Bell throws away lineman/operator manuals
and other important things.

       Well, my hands are getting tired, and I have basically covered
everything you need to know about trashing and mashing. Like I said before,
if you want to know more, I suggest you read the file written by Phucked
Agent 04. Have fun, and don't get caught!


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