_________ SWAT MAGAZINE ISSUE TWENTY: AUGUST 1999 __________ / \___________________________________________/ \ / The Beginners Guide To Phreaking: Part II: Beige Boxing. \ / By =The-Doh-Boy= \ ----------------------------------------------------------------------- Welcome to the second installment of my Beginners Guide, this month I am focusing on Beige Boxing. This is a great way to have some fun with your mates when your bored, and get free calls for your trouble. The Basics. Firstly you are going to have to go and get yourself a Beige Box. To get one you simply go to your local Argos catalogue and order their cheapest fone, mines is a DIALATRON. What you have to do then is use wire cutters to cut the jack away from the end of the cable to reveal three (sometimes more) wires. Stick crocodile clips on the end of each one of these and there you have your basic Beige Box. You see more elite phreaks with cordless fones rigged up like this so that they can plug it in and go somewhere out of view to phreak. I would recommend upgrading your Beige as you get more experienced. Once you have this set up you have to find your local PCP or DP (Distribution Point) you can spot these as they are green cabinets (like electricity boxes) at the edge of most streets, the BT ones have (surprisingly) BT logos on them. In order to get into one of these you need a hex wrench which will fit the little triangular bolts on the cabinet. If you are incredibly stuck then you can use three two pence pieces on each edge of the triangles. If you live in an area served by NTL then your lucky, because their Dps don't have locks on them, just lift the cover up. Anyway, once you're in the thing you will see many pairs of wires. Each one of these is a customers connection to the local loop (the exchange basically) this means you can hook up two wires from your Beige onto two wires in here. Which two wires is anyone guess, it varies from fone to fone. A bit of trial and error changing the wires and you will be greeted by a familiar dial tone. All you have to do now is dial away! The Fun Stuff. This section could be a book long, get a few phreaks together, give them a Beige and watch them turn into total nutcases! There was of course the time me and ODC, Brakis, and a mate went out with two Beige's and ended up getting caught by some guy who picked his fone up at the time we were calling a few select 0891 numbers, haha! Basically just mess about with it and see what clever stuff you can get up to. Try rigging up an old analogue cordless fone with a nine volt battery and hook the base unit to your nearest payphone, take the handset home and you've got your own line for a week or so! All of these fones work at 27Mhz or so, so you can go and do what I call "Beige Walking" which is just taking your handset about your local housing scheme and searching for a dial tone. Its worked for me a few times and you can indeed dial out with it. How Does This Fit In With Your Principle Of Phreaking Smart Ass? Well if you'd let me explain! When your attaching your box to the line, you're illustrating my principle exactly. You're attaching only the two voice wires to the line, your letting your voice travel through the line, and letting some other poor sucker take the charging code! Wrap Up. Well by now you should be able to Red Box and Beige Box your way to some free calls. Stay tuned for next months installment where I will expand your phreaking knowledge and get you some more free calls.