The Ocean County Phone Punx Presents alt.phreaking Faq version 1.4 created-August 11, 1997 updated-April 1, 1998 The alt.phreaking Faq is maintained and edited by the OCPP. It is for informational purposes only and is posted on alt.phreaking, at the 1st and 15th of every month This file can be downloaded at the OCPP-http://ocpp.home.ml.org Comments or questions can be mailed to XOCPPX@aol.com If you think anything should be added/deleted/corrected let us know. If you would like to submit your zine, webpage, or whatever to be included in the FAQ just email us with the info. 1. What is alt.phreaking for? Alt.Phreaking is a newsgroup for the discussion, and exchange of Phreaking information, hints, tips, and general knowledge. It is supposed to be a way for people to discuss phreaking without feeling like a moron, whether asking or answering questions. It is also a good way for phreaks around the world to communicate easily. 2. What is a phreak? Phreak is short for phone phreak, a hacker of the telephone system. A phreak, (or a phreaker) is someone who want's to learn about the telephone system. A phreak is not someone who destroys phone property if it's not necessary for the advancement of their knowledge of said system. Boxing and other ways of hacking the telco does not make someone a phreak. Being a phreak is a way of life. There are many different views on what is a phreak, so two people may call themselves "phreaks" yet have two totally different view points. 3. I'm a newbie please help The first mistake newbies make is assuming that everyone will jump to spoon feed them answers. Lots of us really DO want to help you, but we have better things to do than tutor you non-stop. First and foremost, you should try and learn as much as you can about all aspects of phreaking. Visit as many phreaking webpages as possible. The more you know, the better you'll be able to choose what you want to do and don't want to do, and the more useful you will be to others who need help. Before you ask for help, think of exactly what you want to learn about. Then if you know what you want to learn about and have questions do a search on what that is, you should be able to find a ton of info on that subject. Then, do the homework. Read, read, read, and then, read some more. Then, if your questions still aren't answered, ask someone. If you just leech off of someone else's research and hard work, then you aren’t really learning anything at all. If you really want to learn about phreaking, you're gonna have to sacrifice some time. Also, don't get discouraged if you get flamed and everyone calls you a lamer. Keep with it and you will get better. 4. I need help with phreaking in a foreign country It's tough to find phreaks in the same state, let alone the same place in a foreign country. There aren't too many places for phreaks to get their info in thier country because most phreaking takes place in the US. One place to look is in 2600's meeting section to see if there are any meetings in your area. Check question 23 for foreign phreak websites. Try the UK's phreaking newsgroup @ alt.ph.uk and Germany's phreaking newsgroup @ de.org.ccc 5. What is a red box? A red box is a device that generates or plays back the tones that bell pay phones generate when a coin is deposited. The red box allows calls to be placed free from bell co. owned telephones by mimicking the tones of coins being dropped. The most common redbox is a modified radio shack 33 number memory pocket dialer. 6. Where do I get the 6.5536 crystal for it? The best place to get crystals is from a place called DigiKey.1-800-digikey. They sell them for about 2 bucks each, and the crystals are the smallest you can find. Some people like to use a 6.5 MHz crystal because the actual frequency is 6.49MHz, and obviously 6.5 is closer to it than 6.5536 is. 7. Do they still work? Redboxes work on Bell telephone only, they do not work on COCOT’s. On some phones, there is a bandpass filter or a cut-off handset when you dial, so you can't enter redbox tones. Redboxes are slowly becoming extinct and it all depends on how big the redbox problem is in your area. You'll just have to try it on a phone and see if it works or not. 8. What is a COCOT? COCOT is an acronym for Customer Owned Coin Operated Telephone. This is a phone that is owned by a private business or person. Even though they look like phones that are owned by your local telephone company they are very diffrent. COCOT's are known for thier high security. For instance, you cannot redbox off a COCOT. They are also known for their high rates. Calls from a COCOT are often more expensive and some even charge for 411. In the good old days COCOTs were connected to normal POTS (home phone) lines, but there is a growing trend of connecting them to specially leased lines from the phone company that allow for greater fraud protection (blocking 900/976 and international calls) and services (coin supervision and extended operator services). 9. Does *67 block *69? In some areas *69 now has a feature that reads back the number of the person that called you and then gives you the option to call them back. In some places that have that feature, *67 will block your number from being read back but they can still call you. However is some areas it is said that *67 will block it all altogher but he best way to check is to spend the 75 cents and try it yourself. 10. What is an ANI? ANI stands for automatic number identification. It is a service feature in which the directory number or equipment number of a calling station is automatically obtained. Enhanced 911 systems make the most use out of this feature. ANI is often mistaken for ANAC. 11. What is an ANAC? ANAC stands for Automatic Number Anouncement Curcuit. An ANAC number refers to a number that you call that tells you what number you're calling from. This has a variety of uses. Lineman call them to find out the number of the line they are working on. Phreaks use them when they are beigeboxing for the same reason. 12. I need an ANAC number for my area. ANAC numbers are different in all areas. Try to find your local ANAC and use that one. If you can’t use a national one like 1-800-487-9240. National ANAC numbers come and go so don’t use it a hundred times a day to impress your friends because they’ll shut it down if it’s used too much. 13. What is scanning? In phreaking terms, there are two diffrent types of scanning. The first one is called exchange scanning. This is where you scan an exchange in hopes of finding a certain type of number. Most of the time exchange scanning is done with a wardialer, or a program that scans that exchange for you and saves the numbers for you in a seprate file to review the results later. Scanning can also be done my hand which called manual scanning. Most of the time people scan exchanges for terminal numbers, but text numbers, voice mail and other such numbers are often scanned for. Another type of scanning is frequency scanning. This type of scanning is the same type radio frequency scanning that Ham radio buffs do using scanners that you can get in Radioshack and other electronic places. The phreaking purpose of this is to pick up cordless and cell phone conversations. Some use this just to hear other people's conversations but others use it to get credit card numbers and other personal information that people carelessly say on wireless phones. Visit the PLA at http://www.phonelosers.org for more information on frequency scanning. 14. I need a war dialer, program, dial up, etc. First off, search for things your self. Do an Internet search on what your looking for. Wardialers are a good way to get the phone companys attention. They have equipment that notifys them of your suspicous dialing. Most programs are full of bugs and virii and if you don't know what your doing you can cause a lot of problems for yourself. To find phreaking programs do a web search for "hacking phreaking wardialer" or whatever type of program your looking for. If you use a program than you aren’t learning much. If someone gives you a number or a program than you really aren’t learning anything. You learn a lot more when you find something yourself. 15. How do I find my local central office? Cental Office locations differ from state to state. Most of time there is one in each county, often located in the county seat (main town). Some people have said that they're CO is a huge brick building with no windows, however, I have seen CO's that have windows all around them. Chances are, your not just gonna stumble on your CO. The best way to do it, is to ask a bell employee. Most of the time, they'll get real suspicious and ask you a bunch a questions. The best thing to say is "I have a uncle from another town and he said that he was getting transfered to the CO down here. Can you tell me where it is so I can just see if his car is there?" They'll be happy to help you. Once you know where it is put on your bathing suit and do some dumpster diving. However if you are rich and lazy check out CO Finder for windows at www.stuffsoftware.com/cofinder.html I'm just amazed that this program even exists. 16. I saw X in the movie (select appropriate) Wargames, Hackers, The Net. How do I do it? When you watch a H/P type movie you may see them do certain things and then you think you can go out and do that too. However most of the time the movies will use the real name of a technique but do it totally diffrent. This is so they don't wind up in court for teaching millions of people how to commit fraud. Another thing movies might do, is just make something up. For instance, in the movie "hackers" they talk about a Gibson computer when in reality there is no such thing as a Gibson. 17. Is phreaking (or any method of or related to) legal? What is and isn't legal is still very vague when it comes to hacking and phreaking. Weather you get in trouble depends on where you live, who your pissing off, and what your doin. For example, I have seen kids get kicked out school for just having certain texts in there possesion. If you respect property and just keep a bunch of text files on your comp than you should be fine. If you go out and tap someones phone you could get in a lot of trouble. Like I said you never know. Your local police will probably just tell you to stop, mainly cuz they don't know what your doing. However, the secret service can just make stuff up and charge you with anything. Some states actually have laws making some methods of phreaking illegal. For intance, there are trashing laws in certain areas and scanning has been outlawed in Colorado. 18. I need 31337 warez d00dz Wrong news group. Try alt.2600, they are crawling with warez lists. 19. What does XXXX Box do? & What is my ringback number for my area? If you are too caught up in meaningless crap like this, go read the 2600 FAQ. 20. What is a CNA number? CNA stands for Customer Name and Address. The CNA number is a phone number for telephone company personnel to call and get the name and address for a phone number. If a telephone lineman finds a phone line he does not recognize, he can use the ANI number to find it's phone number and then call the CNA operator to see who owns it and where they live. Normal CNA numbers are available only to telephone company personnel. Private citizens may now legally get CNA information from private companies. Two such companies are: Unidirectory (900)933-3330 Telename (900)884-1212 Note that these are 900 numbers, and will cost you approximately one dollar per minute. If you are in 312 or 708, AmeriTech has a pay-for-play CNA service available to the general public. The number is 796-9600. The cost is $.35/call and can look up two numbers per call. If you are in 415, Pacific Bell offers a public access CNA service at (415)705-9299. If you are in Bell Atlantic territory you can call (201)555-5454 or (908)555-5454 for automated CNA information. The cost is $.50/call. 21. Where can I get a lineman's handset? For more info on handsets and other telco tools visit Lineside's Telecom Site - http://www.angelfire.com/ga/linesidetelco/index.html Contact East 335 Willow Street North Andover, MA 01845-5995 (508)682-2000 Jensen Tools 7815 S. 46th Street Phoenix, AZ 85044-5399 (800)426-1194 Specialized Products 3131 Premier Drive Irving, TX 75063 (800)866-5353 Time Motion Tools 12778 Brookprinter Place Poway, CA 92064 (619)679-0303 22. What are some phreak IRC channels? Keep in mind that many of these chatrooms follow the same rule that most chatroom follow. No one talks about the subject that they are suppose to talk about. If you want to have a intellectual discussion try to find some telco personel chatrooms. #2600 #cellular #hack #rock #phreak #realhack #root #npa #off the hook 23. What are some other newsgroups that deal with phreaking? alt.phreaking is your best bet as far as general phreaking is concerned. I would only advise the other newsgroups if you live in another country or if you want to do some research. alt.ph.uk - UK Hacking and Phreaking alt.2600 - Filled with warez d00dz alt.2600.phreakz - Still more warez alt.hackers - Hacking alt.hack.nl - Hacking alt.hacker - Hacking de.org.ccc - German H/P newsgroup run maily by the Chaos Computer Club 24. What are some good phreak websites? Linenoise http://www.linenoise.org/ Purgatory http://soli.inav.net/~dustinm/ The Library http://www.sonic.net/~theruler/txt/index.html Gold Matrix's webpage http://pages.prodigy.com/Zachs Soldiers of Misfortune http://som.hypermart.net/ JadeDragon's Phreaking Page http://free.prohosting.com/~jadedrgn/ Digital Misfit's Syndicate http://roo.unixnet.org/~dms/ -Foriegn phreak websites- Canadian Phreak House http://mypage.direct.ca/z/zepka/main.htm Dake Zone http://www.omedia.ch/pages/dake/idxang.htm Chaos Computer Club http://berlin.ccc.de/ 25. What are some good phreak ezines? Phone Losers of America http://www.phonelosers.org Ocean County Phone Punx (OCPP) http://ocpp.home.ml.org System Failure http://www.sysfail.org TFP availible from the OCPP's website THTJ availible from the OCPP's website Security Breach availible from the OCPP's website Phrack http://www.phrack.com 26. What are some good phreak print zines? 2600 www.2600.com subsciption info- 2600 Subscription Dept PO Box 752 Middle Island, NY 11953-0752 subscrition fees: United States: $21/yr individual, $50 corporate. Overseas: $30/yr individual, $65 corporate. Root zine http://www.openix.com/~mutter/ Subscription info Regular Subscription U.S. Resident Non-U.S. Corporate 1 Issue Sampler $2.00 $2.50 $10.00 2 Issue Subscription $4.00 $5.00 $20.00 Back Issue Each $2.50 $3.00 $20.00 Volume $9.00 $10.00 $70.00 to: root zine PO Box 1178 Maplewood, NJ 07040 (please make checks payable to "root zine") Blacklisted 411 Subscription info Yearly subscription: U.S. $20 Canada $24 Foreign $35 Pay be credit card, check, or money order send to: Blacklisted! 411 Subsciption Dept., P.O. Box 2506, Cypress, CA 90630 or call 714-899-8853 FAX 714-899-9283 27. I need to Research X, where do I go? There's no point in repeating ourselves; read Mr. Seuss' article "Resource Bin" in Issue 7 of the OCPP (ocpp.home.ml.org) Editor: Mohawk and the OCPP Writers: Mr. Seuss, Checkmate, Redbox111, MR.Sonik, MMX KiLLa, and the OCPP Ocean County Phone Punx http://ocpp.home.ml.org <732>