The Mickey Mouse Club's Guide To -+ Beige Boxing +-

The Mickey Mouse Club's Guide To
-+ Beige Boxing +-


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.