[Tutorial] THE ULTIMATE BEGINNER'S GUIDE TO HACKING AND PHREAKING (Part 3)

II. PHREAKING


A. What is phreaking


Phreaking is basically hacking with a telephone. Using different "boxes" and "tricks" to manipulate the phone companies and their phones, you gain many things, two of which are: knowledge about telephones and how they work, and free local and long distance phone calls. In the following sections, you will learn some about boxes, what they are, and how they work. You will also learn about the other forms of phreaking.


B. Why phreak?


Phreaking, like hacking, is used to gather information about telephones, telephone companies, and how they work. There are other benefits as well. As stated above, you also get free phone calls. But, these are used mainly to gather more information about the phones, and to allow us free access to all information.


C. Phreaking rules



Most of the same rules apply for hacking and phreaking, so I will only list a few here.


1. Never box over your home phone line.
2. You should never talk about phreaking projects over your home phone line.
3. Never use your real name when phreaking.
4. Be careful who you tell about your phreaking projects.
5. Never leave phreaking materials out in the open. Keep them in a safe place.
6. Don't get caught.


D. Where and how to start phreaking


Well, you can phreak on any telephone, but as stated above, it is very stupid to do so on your home phone line.
First you need you need to construct the boxes needed for what you want to do. All of the boxes and their descriptions are listed in the next section. Most of the boxes are very easy to make, but if your not into making shit, there are usually alternative ways of making them.


E. Boxes and what they do


Box: Description:

Red Box generates tones for free phone calls

Black Box when called, caller pays nothing

Beige Box lineman's handset

Green Box generates coin return tones

Cheese Box turns your phone into a payphone

Acrylic Box steal 3-way calling and other services

Aqua Box stops F.B.I. lock-in-trace

Blast Box phone microphone amplifier

Blotto Box shorts out all phones in your area

Blue Box generates 2600hz tone

Brown Box creates party line

Bud Box tap neighbors phone

Chatreuse Box use electricity from phone

Chrome Box manipulates traffic signals

Clear Box free calls

Color Box phone conversation recorder

Copper Box causes crosstalk interference

Crimson Box hold button

Dark Box re-route calls

Dayglo Box connect to neighbors phone line

Divertor Box re-route calls

DLOC Box create party line

Gold Box dialout router

Infinity Box remote activated phone tap

Jack Box touch-tone key pad

Light Box in-use light

Lunch Box AM transmitter

Magenta Box connect remote phone line to another

Mauve Box phone tap without cutting into the line

Neon Box external microphone

Noise Box creates line noise

Olive Box external ringer

Party Box creates party line

Pearl Box tone generator

Pink Box creates party line

Purple Box hold button

Rainbow Box kill trace

Razz Box tap neighbors phone

Rock Box add music to phone line

Scarlet Box causes interference

Silver Box create DTMF tones for A,B,C, and D

Static Box raises voltage on phone line

Switch Box add services

Tan Box phone conversation recorder

TV Cable Box see sound waves on TV

Urine Box create disturbance on phone headset

Violet Box stop payphone from hanging up

White Box DTMF key pad

Yellow Box add line extension


F. Box Plans


The Red Box is the main tool that you will use so I have included the Red Box plans. The other box plans can be downloaded from the Internet.

Red Box:

There are two ways that you can make a Red Box:

One is to go to Radio Shack and buy a tone dialer and a 6.5536Mhz crystal.(If Radio Shack doesn't have the crystal, you can order them from the electronics companies that I have listed at the end of this section.) Open up the tone dialer and replace the existing crystal (big, shiny, metal thing labeled "3.579545Mhz") with the 6.5536Mhz crystal. Now, close it up. You have a red box.
To use it for long distance calls play the tones that add up to the amount of money that the operator requests. For a 25 cents tone press 5 *'s. For a 10 cents tone press 3 *'s. For a 5 cents tone press 1 *.
And, the second way, which is a much easier method, is to get the Red Box tones from a phreaking program, such as: Omnibox, or Fear's Phreaker Tools. Play the tones as you hold a microcassette recorder about 1-inch away from your computer speakers, and record the tones.
The Red Box only works on public telephones, it does not work on COCOT's.(Defined in next section.) It makes the telephone think that you have put money in. Red Boxes do not work on local calls because the phone is not using ACTS (Automated Coin Toll System), unless you call the operator and have her place the call for you. You tell her the number that you want to dial and then when she asks you to put in your money, play the tones. If she asks you why you need her to place the call tell her that one of the buttons is smashed in or something like that. You now have and know how to use a Red Box!

Electronics Companies:

Alltronics
2300 Zanker Road
San Jose, CA 95131
(408)943-9774 -Voice-
(408)943-9776 -Fax-

Blue Saguaro
P.O. Box 37061
Tucson, AZ 85740

Mouser
(800)346-6873

Unicorn Electronics
10000 Canoga Ave. Unit C-2
Chatsworth, CA 91311
1-800-824-3432


G. Free calling from COCOT's


First of all, COCOT stands for "Customer Owned Customer Operated Telephone". These are most likely to be found at resteraunts, amusement parks, etc.
All you have to do to make a free call from a COCOT is dial a 1-800 number (they let you do this for free), say some bullshit and get them to hang up on you. Stay on the line after they hang up, then dial the number that you want to call.
This may not work by the time you read this because COCOT owners are becoming more aware of us every day.


H. ANAC numbers


ANAC stands for "Automated Number Announcment Circuit". In other words, you call the ANAC number in your area and it tells you the number that you are calling from. This is useful when Beige Boxing, or hooking your modem up to other phone lines, to find out what number you are using. The "?" are substituted for unknown numbers. Do some scanning to find them out. Here are the ANAC numbers for the U.S.A. with their area code, and the only one I knew of in the U.K.:

U.S.A.:

Area Code: ANAC Number:

201 958
202 811
203 970
205 300-222-2222
205 300-555-5555
205 300-648-1111
205 300-765-4321
205 300-798-1111
205 300-833-3333
205 557-2311
205 811
205 841-1111
205 908-222-2222
206 411
207 958
209 830-2121
209 211-9779
210 830
212 958
213 114
213 1223
213 211-2345
213 211-2346
213 760-2???
213 61056
214 570
214 790
214 970-222-2222
214 970-611-1111
215 410-????
215 511
215 958
216 200-????
216 331
216 959-9968
217 200-???-????
219 550
219 559
301 958-9968
310 114
310 1223
310 211-2345
310 211-2346
312 200
312 290
312 1-200-8825
312 1-200-555-1212
313 200-200-2002
313 200-222-2222
313 200-???-????
313 200200200200200
314 410-????
315 953
315 958
315 998
317 310-222-2222
317 559-222-2222
317 743-1218
334 5572411
334 5572311
401 200-200-4444
401 222-2222
402 311
404 311
404 940-???-????
404 940
405 890-7777777
405 897
407 200-222-2222
408 300-???-????
408 760
408 940
409 951
409 970-????
410 200-6969
410 200-555-1212
410 811
412 711-6633
412 711-4411
412 999-????
413 958
413 200-555-5555
414 330-2234
415 200-555-1212
415 211-2111
415 2222
415 640
415 760-2878
415 7600-2222
419 311
502 200-2222222
502 997-555-1212
503 611
503 999
504 99882233
504 201-269-1111
504 998
504 99851-0000000000
508 958
508 200-222-1234
508 200-222-2222
508 26011
509 560
510 760-1111
512 830
512 970-????
515 5463
515 811
516 958
516 968
517 200-222-2222
517 200200200200200
518 511
518 997
518 998
603 200-222-2222
606 997-555-1212
606 711
607 993
609 958
610 958
610 958-4100
612 511
614 200
614 517
615 200200200200200
615 2002222222
615 830
616 200-222-2222
617 200-222-1234
617 200-222-2222
617 200-444-4444
617 220-2622
617 958
618 200-???-????
618 930
619 211-2001
619 211-2121
703 811
704 311
707 211-2222
708 1-200-555-1212
708 1-200-8825
708 200-6153
708 724-9951
708 356-9646
713 380
713 970-????
713 811
714 114
714 211-2121
714 211-2222
716 511
716 990
717 958
718 958
802 2-222-222-2222
802 200-222-2222
802 1-700-222-2222
802 111-2222
805 114
805 211-2345
805 211-2346
805 830
806 970-????
810 200200200200200
812 410-555-1212
813 311
815 200-???-????
817 290
817 211
818 970-611-1111
818 1223
818 211-2345
903 211-2346
904 970-611-1111
906 200-222-222
907 1-200-222-2222
907 811
908 958
910 200
910 311
910 988
914 990-1111
915 970-????
916 211-2222
916 461
919 200
919 711

U.K.:

175