2600: The Hacker Quarterly (Volume 3, Number 10, October 1986)

8/9/2019 2600: The Hacker Quarterly (Volume 3, Number 10, October 1986)

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2600Death of a Pay Phone

(Yes. this is an article on how to real fl'foulupapayp hone. Wewant to make it clear that we disapprove o f people

manhandling helpless electronic beings. But we also felt thisarticle would be o f interest to those curious about how thedevices work. We don't actualfl' know if his information wiltwork. but we 71 leave that for you to decide. We hope this canalso be useful to our friends in various intelligence agencies.who may want to include it in pamphlets on how to mess upvarious countries we're not getting along with at the moment.You have our permission. guys.)

by MAD!The following article is for AT&T and GT E payphones from

1982-1985. Some things are different on GT E phones, soadditions are included for them.

The Coin SlotFo r every coin you pu t in a phone. a series of tones are made.

After you pu t the coins in the slot, they pass through a total izerwhich counts them. and then deposits them in a hopper. Toempty out the hopper. all you have to do is activate the coinrelay. Payphones sometimes hold $100 ormore. To activate therelay. place a nickel in the phone. Stick a magnet up the coinslot about five inches. Now remove the front panel of thephone. You will see a series of wires. Cut the red and green ones.N ow in the fron t of the panel yo u will see three screws. Touch

OCTOBER, 1986$2

VOLUME THREE. NUMBER TE N

the green wire to the third screw and have a hat ready. because alot of change is going to come flooding out. Isn't this fun?

Free CreditsIf you have long distance friends. then this part you11 enjoy.On e of the cheap things about pay phones is that they dependon in-band signaling to indicate what coins you have inserted.The operator can tell whether or not you have actually insertedany money. bu t now how much, Af ter you insert the initial coin.you can duplicate the tones for the rest of the charge with a redbox. We want to show you how to do it without the use of a box.Fo r this you will need a set of screwdrivers. both philips andflathead.

Open the front panel of the phone and cut the red and greenwires. Take the cover off the top of the phone and insert anickel. You should hear nothing. Find a green wire comingfrom the coin slot down to the hopper. Disconnect that wire.

Now take of f the case and you will see a small switch. Move theswitch. This sets the totalizer backwards by one. Now put thehopper cover back on and reconnect the wire. Go back to thefront panel. Feel to the right of the two screws. You should feelfour jumpers. One of the jumpers should be disconnected.Reconnect it. Now cut the to p jumper. You should hear a loudpop. Next. touch the green wire to the second screw. You will(continued on page 3-74)

TRA.fttHING: AMERICA S SOURCE FOR INFORMATIONby The Dragyn

The Phone Company will go to extremes on occasion. Infact, unless you really know what to expect from them, they willsurprise the heck out of you with their "unpublished tarriffs."

Recently. a situation was brought to my attention that up tillthen I had been totally unaware of. least to mention. had anyconcern about. It involved garbage! The Phone Company willgo as far as to prosecute anyone who rummages through theirgarbage and helps himself to some.

Of course. they have their reasons for this, and no doubtbenefit from such action. But. why should they be so pickyabout garbage? The answer soon became clear to me: thosehuge metal bins are filled up with mort' than waste. old food.and refuse. Although it is Pacific Telephone policy to recyclepaper waste products. sometimes employees do overlook thissacred operation when sorting the garbage. Thus top-secretconfidential Phone Company records go to the garbage binsinstead of the paper shredders. Since it is constantly being

updated with "company memorandums", and supplied withextensive reference material , th e Phone Company mustcontinually dispose of the outdated materials. Some phonecompanies are supplied each year with the complete "SystemPractices" guide. This publication is an over-40-foot-longlibrary of reference material about everything to do withtelephones. As the new edition arrives each year. the old versionof "System Practices" must also be thrown out.

I very quickly figured ou t where some local phone ph reakswere getting their material. They crawl into the garbage binsand remove selected items that are of particular interest to themand their fellow phreaks. One phone phreak in the Los Angelesarea has salvaged the complete 1972 edition of "Bell SystemPractices". It is so large and was out of order (the binders had

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been removed) that it took him over a year to sort it out andcreate enough shelving for it in his garage.

Much of this "Top Secret" information is so secret that mos t

phone companies have no idea what is in thei r files. They havetheir hands full simply replacing everything each time a changein wording requires a new revision. It seems they waste morepaper than they can read!

It took quite a while for the Hollywood. California trafficmanager to figure out how all of the local phone phreaksconstantly discovered the switch room test numbers. Wheneversomeone wanted to use the testboard. they found the localphone phreaks on the lines talking to points all over the world.It got to the point where the local garbage buffs knew moreabout the office operations than the employees themselves. Onephreak went so far as to call and tell a switchman what his nextdaily assignment would be. This. however. proved to be to omuch. The switchman traced the call and one phone phreak wasdenied the tool of his trade.

In another rather humorous incident. a fellow phreak wasrummaging through the trash bin when he heard someoneapproaching. He pressed up against the side of the bin andsilently waited for the goodies to come. You can imagine hissurprise when the garbage from the lunchroom landed on hishead.

Most people find evenings best for checking out their localte1co trash piles. The only thing necessary is a flashlight and. inthe case mentioned above. possibly a raincoat. A word ofwarning, though. before you rush out and dive into the trashheap. It is probably illegaL bu t no matter where you live. youcertainly won't get the local policeman to hold your flashlightfor you.


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Death of a Pay Phone (continuedframpage3-73)

hear the sound of twenty-five cents being inserted. You now

have30

cents credit. Repeat as many times as you need. Thenreconnect the green wire and dial your number. GTE notes: Thegreen wire will be white; the red one will be blue; the tota lizer islocated at the bottom of the front panel.

How to Open a PayphoneAn Atlantic Bell payphone is a heavily armored device. It is

designed to withstand attempted theft and damage. As shownabove, we don' t need to get through all the armor to phreak it.All we need to do is get to the wiring which is all located behindthree easy-to-remove panels.

All that holds the front panel on is 3 or 4 bolts. Just applysulphuric acid and in ten minutes or less they will come rightout. While you are waiting, remove the other panels. The toppanel is held on by two tight nuts. A good pair of pliers willremove them. The back panel is the hardest part to tackle. It isheld together by a semi-permanent solution. On the newerAT&T credit and pay phones, an alarm goes off when the backpanel is removed. The circuitry for this is located in the toppanel. Look for a round box with four wires protruding out ofit. Cut the first and second ones. Next use the sulfuric acid, waitten minutes and lift it right off.

How to Steal a PayphoneEver wanted to have your own payphone? It's not very hard

to steal one. As a matter of fact. it is easy to rip one out of thewall. but we want to show you how to take one home intact.

Stealing payphones is extremely dangerous, much more thanphreaking. Only try this if you are very serious and I or curious.Never steal more than one from any area. They sometimesknow immediately when it's gone, so get the hell out of there.The inside of it is heavily armored. If you are taking it for themoney, you will need a full set of philips and flatheadscrewdrivers, sulphuric acid, a crowbar, a sledgehammer, boltcutters, and probably more. Now you can take it home andpound on it, or you can use the easy way we showed you above.A thermite reaction is useful for eating through the lock on thecoin box, and for removing other parts.

The Uses ofa PayphoneOkay, now you have your payphone home. What will you do

with it? Well, if you want to make it work, you need to run up afive prong cable from the phone line in your basement. Theoutlet in the wall won't work. DriII a two inch hole at the leftfront of it. Remove the back panel (as described above) anddisconnect the wires coming out of it. You will see them

attached with silver screws. Remove them all, and make sureyou know which screws each wire was attached with.

Now for some explaining. You could just wire it up with theexisting wires, but then it will make tones, so we are going torewire it. You will need ten heavyduty7 inch wires for this part.

If you don't want it to accept money, skip this next section.Otherwise, take the 12 o'clock screw and connect it to the screwat the bottom of the totalizer. You will have to push it through,then take the top off. and connect it. Attach the 2 0 'clock screwto the green wire on the silver box. Simply cut the green wirefrom the box and connect them together.

Okay, now this is the part that makes them work. T a b the

silver box, which should be hanging loose (make sure the wires

attached already won't come loose), and fasten your ten wiresto the screws on the phone. Star ting at the top left of the silverbox, hook the wires up in a counter-clockwise fashion, startingwith 3 o'clock, excluding 12,2,2:30, and 4.

N ow run the cable up through the bottom, and hook it to thefront of the silver box. It should now function normally.

The Telephone LockRotary payphones dial by having the number roll back to its

original position. It breaks the signal the number oftimes equalto the dialed number. You can achieve the same effect bytapping rapidly on the on-off toggle switch at the top of thephone (the one you use to hang up with).

Let's say you wanted to call 123-4567. You would tap on thenumber once, pause half a second, tap rapidly twice, pause, tapthree times fast. pause, and so on. It takes alittle practice to getthe numbers right, but it does work. So much for lockedtelephones.

Payphones Off HookEveryone knows the old tr ick where you would call someone

on a payphone, then walk away and it would stay off the hookuntil someone hung it up, or a Ma Bell repair crew came alongand took care of it. Well, that doesn't work anymore. Thecurrent payphones reset themselves within 45 minutes. Well, wewere thinking, wouldn't it be nice if you could wire it so that thepayphone wouldn't hang up, even if the receiver was put backon hook? What you would be doing is turning it off. Then thepayphone couldn't be hung up. And while we were at it, wefound out how to keep it from resetting. Here's how: Removethe top cover. and find the totalizer (see above). Now unscrewthe cover of the totalizer and locate the center position wheresix to ten wires meet. Clip all these wires. Pu t both covers backon. Next. open the front panel. Find those main wires we'vebeen using. and cut the third wire to the right.

What this does is stop the payphone from resetting, and itturns off the hang up switch . To use it. just call someone up. andfollow the above notes.

Getting Your Money BackI f a payphone takes your money and won't give it back. but

the money is still in the hopper, here's what you can do. Jus t diala 950 number, such as 950-1044, and it will clear it out.

Endless RingingThis will make a payphone ring and ring. The only way to

stop it will be if a repairman comes and fixes it.

Open thefront ofthe phone. Now in thefront row of wires goand clip the first. third. and fourth. Now touch them to eachother until two of them make the phone ring. Now attach thetwo top ends and bottom ends to each other. Take the odd wireand reconnect it. Now cut the third wire to the right. If thepayphone isn't ringing right now, make sure the receiver is hungupand touch those wires again. It wiII now ring. Pu t the phonetogether and walk away.

Remember after every trick to put the phone back togetherfor another day.(This article was by MAD.' members: Mr. COSMOS. TheCommodore Kid. Death-Stalker. and The Gremlin.)

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3/8

FHI Investigates Coffee MachineThe FBI is investigating. at the request of the International

Brotherhood of Police Officers Local 545. the bugging of acoffee machine in Lewiston. Maine.

The police chief maintains that planting the listening deviceviolated no law. The chief said he planted the departmentowned device to find out who was vandali7.ing the machine.

An internal investigation concluded that no crime wascommitted and that the chief should not be disciplined. TheMaine attorney general's office agreed on the grounds that thebug was planted in a public place.

CIS Copyrights Public SoftwareInf(lWnrld

Compuserve Information Service has threatened a bulletinboard operator with legal action for offering on his boardpublic domain programs he obtained on-l ine fromCompuserve.

Compuserve, a common source for public domain programs,said it considers the entire contents of its service to becopyrighted, a policy that caused user outcry when it was firstadopted last year.

The bulletin board operator, Steven Sande. said his troublesbegan when he left a message on Compuserve's MAUG(Micronetworked Apple Users Group) Forum informing otherusers of his Mousetrap BBS board ( ~ 3 7 9 1 0 7 3 6 ) .The messagenoted that the board contained some public domain softwareobtained from MAUG files.

A few days later, on September II , Sande said he received aregistered letter from Compuserve's attorneys stating that hewas infringing on Compuserve's copyright. The letterthreatened him with civil and criminal action. Sande shut downhis board temporarily and canceled his subscription toCompuserve.

Mil(e Todd, founder of the IBM special interest group onCompuserve, defended free access to public domain software."That's the way it's supposed to be," he said.

Todd said he ha d protested Compuserve'scopyrightdecisionlast year and that it was one factor that prompted him to moveto The Source.

Navy Software AvailableThe Navy has been using public domain software to save

money and provide specialty software unavailable throughcommercial channels.

Most of this software consists of applialtions of commericalsoftware such as Wordstar. Lolus 1-2-3, and Dbase III. "Whenit comes down to performing unique, individual functions suchas tracking aviation flight patterns, th e programs aren'tcommercially available." a computer specialist with NavyRegional Data Automation Center said.

[Readers. Navy public domain software (shareware) can beobtained from the Navy's 88S which was at 8044451627 andR044451121. At press time the first number was out of service

and the second number did not answer, but you should be ableto find the new number.]

HBO Encryption BrokenLast month, the owners of a Westbury. New York store that

sells backyard satellite dish antennas went on nationaltelevision saying they had found a way to overcome Home 80xOffice's $40.000 signal-scrambling system.

H80's scrambling system is based on the governmentsanctioned Data Encryption Standard.

The story revolves around a demonstration by Cabletech.which showed what it claimed was an inexpensive way to piratescrambled H BO signals. The intent ofthe demonstration was toprotest to H 80 the monthly service fees H 80 is now chargingowners of private satellite dishes.

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Now dish owners have to lease or buy signal descramblersand pay a monthly service fee just like cable-supportedcustomers.

According to Barry Altman. co-owner of Cabletech. thestore was able to unscramble H BO's video signal using $3 worthof parts. They also contend that they intercepted and decryptedthe accompanying audio channel. a process that involved lessexpensive parts bu t more work.

Cabletech said it would agree to show the manufacturer ofthe scrambling equipment how and what it used to beat HBO'ssecurity if the vendor agrees to recall the devices and refund thepurchase price to consumers.

H 80 and VideoCipher. maker of the descrambler. contendthat Cabletech did indeed descramble a video signal but theymerely amplified a CATV -delivel'td nonscrambled aud iochannne1.

Pennant Ties Up PhonesPhone ticket sales for the World Series went on sale earlier

this month causing havoc on New York's phone lines. Althoughonly 6.000 tickets were made available by phone. New YorkTelephone had made plans to combat possible problems thatwould cause "terrible network congestion." In the 516 area code alone. 16.500 calls came in to the theMets number in a five-minute period (200,000 per hour) and 1.4million an hour for all seven exchanges advertised for fans.Delays in getting a dial-tone were also reported.

The situation prompted Stuart Denning of Springfield. NewJersey. to use two GTE 220 speaker telephones with automaticredial. programmed with Teletron numbers in seven area codesand working in tandem. He was able to purchase two tickets.

Security Can Kill CreativityEven though too little security can leave a communications

system vulnerable to tampering or destruction, a heavy securityblanket can stine creativity and productivity. A recent report,titled T t ' f t ' C ' O m m u n ; c a t ; o n . ~ Security. from Input. Inc., a marketresearch firm in Mountain View. CA, proposes a n\lmber oftechniques that build secure telecommunications systems thatare not prisons for users.

An over7.ealous or overdesigned security system can createprisons of the mind, the report warns. Constrainingprogrammers or communications technicians with excessivesecurity restrictions can backfire because it may negate the veryfactor that makes their contributions cost-effective; that is,their creativity.

Hackers are not the primary threat to communicationssystems. according to the report. Hackers usually break in forintellectual challenge, not for malicious reasons.

A security system is effective, "i f the cost to a perpetrator isgreater than potential gain."

[To illustrate that last point, the report is availablefor $750.]

Indiana "Fones" Are GoneIndiana has been the only state to have its telephone

company listed in the white pages as under "Fone Company".Company officials have announced that the spelling will notappear in next year's directory.

AI 8olin, spokesman for Bell in Indianapolis, said thecompany has been listing Indiana Bell under "fone" for severalyears now but has started getting complaints.

"Some people feel it's a putdow n," Bolin said. "But that wasnot the reason we did it. There's no allegation or implicationthat people are so dumb they don't know how to spell 'phone. "

"It 's a phonetic [sic] spelling, obviously," Bolin said."Basically, we're trying to make it easy for people to get in touchwith us."

The phone company is also listed under several listings,including Indiana Bell, phone, telephone, and fone.


4/8

october letter departmentDear 2600:

Your magazine has been an invaluable aid to me for, information in the past an d I'm hoping that you can come

through for me once again. I have finally broken away from myda ys of boxing and compute r hacking and started can-jumping.My lineperson's handset (which a careless employee "left

behind "), hat. and bolt cutters have proved to be enough untilnow. I recently opened a MC2 box and found some tools whichI believe are test sets. The first is a sping loaded clip of sorts witha black and a red lead coming off and is marked as a 3Mproduct #4047. The other tool is a longer device with a metalprobe at the end; it is marked as #4055 and looks like it couldalmost be a key of some kind. What are these things and howdoI use them? Once again, thanks for a great publication.

Psycho, Calif.P.S. One last little note. The operators at Sprint are more thanhappy to tell you what your local dial-up is if you just tell themthat you lost your little book and that the equal access # is notworking. The number is 8005214949.Dear 2600:

I really enjoy your magazine and have learned a lot from it. Iwant to contribute some information which might be useful tothe teeming millions of phreakers who demand to know more.While in school I discovered that one of the long-distanceservices located in the fiJ7 area code, located in the southern tierof New York, and not far from Big Blue, is very easy to generatenumbers off of. The company is called ACe. AlternativeCommunications Corporation, who use an 800 service for the irlong distance numbers. They watch carefully, but when you callfrom one pay phone to anothe r pay phone, then you can beatthe rap. I think that the reason the people were caught wasbecause they used their hacked numbers unwisely.

I also discovered a system which is connected to ARPANetnetwork. The number for this college computer is 6077772802

and 6077774731, and it is on-line 24 hours a day. This system ishost to three IBM and two V AX systems. I do not know how toget into the ARPANet system but this feat can be done.

I have a question. An orchestra A is 440 virbrations perminute. Could a tone generato r/blue box be configured from agood synthesizer?

Dear Wolfgang:

Yours sincerelyWolfgang Amadeus Moza rt

A Rood synthesizer can certainly do that (see data paRe).Dear 2600:

On Tuesday, August 12. I received a phone call from aMissouri Telephone Company. When they called, they alreadyknew my name (the phone number is my father's). It wasa ladythat called. She said that she has talked to several people andthey said that I had given them a number from which they madefree phone calls. I denied everything. I have this number andcodes for it which I found by trial and error but I never madeany calls through it. However. I did give it to a friend, but nocodes. The lady asked me if I owned a computer with a modem.I said no. She said that they have been "monitoring" my linesfor a long time and knew I was calling this number, I denied itclaiming I knew noth ing of it. She asked many more questions.The friend tha t I gave the number to said a while ago that "Thenumber had changed from an extender to a huma n" so I didn'tcall it again and thought nothing of it till I got this call. Thefriend claimed that they caught her while she was making thecall and told her not to hang up bu t tell them her name. address,

and phone number, so she did!!!! They are sending her a bill.She said she did not tell them my name bu t I don't believe her.They were calling the people. She called to try and find out hername. They just called toda y an d have not called back yet butsaid if they do I can expect severe consequences.

What should I do?

Crazy Eight.P.S. I frequently scan the 800 number and the lady said that

they also knew I was doing this.Dear 8:

It sounds as if hey are just fishi ngfor information. They areprobabfv trying to scare youjust as they scared you r riend intodivulging her name and address. Since yo u say you did notabuse this extender, there should be no proof that you did (i.e.your friends and loved ones' phone numbers appearing onsomeone else's bill at the same time that you called their 800number). {(you don't call this numberfrom your home. youshould no t have to worry about this problem reappearing.Fellow Phreakers:

Earlier this year, on a recent voyage to Puerto Rico,

discovered two very interesting things which warrant closerexamination by the phreaking community. First, aboard theairplane, was a cellular phone called a Sky Telephone. Itworked by inserting a credit card into the holder, then takingthe headset to your seat where you would talk on the phonewhile in flight. The only limitation was that the p lane had to bewithin 30 minutes of the U.S. coastline. I would like to knowhow this system works, and what the potential is for phreakingon one of these phones. (The flight was 3Y2 hours long and if Ihad this knowledge, I could have had a phreak festival.)

Upon arriving in Puerto Rico, I noticed that the island'sphone system, run by PR T (Puerto Rican Telephone). is veryprimitive. The island has very limited access to 800 service, andin order to call the operator you have to dial 123. The only thing

they have going for them is that a phone call still costs only adime. It seems that the computer revolution did not hit theisland yet.

Long distance is maintained exclusively by l IT, but with thetermination of l IT, the long distance lines will be run bysomeone else. There will probab ly be some problems created bythe shift in ownership. This would be an interesting "vacation"spot for phreaking.

Dear LDV,

Keep on phreakingLong Distance Voyager

Thanksfor the information. The main point o(your letter (asfar as we can determine) is that when you are on vacationanywhere YOli should play with the phones and see what bugsYOll canfind. PIllS. this may allow you to call your loved onesback at home inexpensivefv.Dear 2600:

Found another 800 number that spells something nice.It's 1-800-BAD-DEAL.It's a modem that hooks you into Smith & Wesson V AX

computer.Try it.

(continued 'n page 3-80)

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Yours TrulyWize owl

BartenderDead goat saloon

Hilo, Hawaii


5/8

The 2600 Information Bureau

C h i 1 d Stcw-i F . ~ sAlbum LinE '

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D i a l i n g I n s t r u c t i u n sD i a l i n g I n s t r u c t . i e m sS p o r - t sBBC2 r ~ d i oa u d i o f e e dF i nc:mc i 011 F\epor-tTr a v e l L i n e ( R a i l r o a d )T r a v e l L i n e ( A u t o )T r a v e l L i n e (Sea )T r a v e l L i n e ( A i r )B r i t i s h Te l e c o m G u i d eC h r i s t i a n M e s s a y eTo u r i s t i n f oT o u r i s t i n f o i n F ~ e n c hGolden Hi t . s L i n E !To u r i s t i n f 0 i n Ger-rnanC h a l l e n g e l..int.:!Di a l ?'1 PI i m e t .

2600 (lS SN 0749-3851)Editor and PublisherTwenty Six Hundred

Associate EditorsEric Corley David Ruderman

Executive DirectorHelen Victory

CartoonistDan Holder

BBS OperatorTom Blich

Junk Mail ReceiverRichard Petrovich

Writers: John Drake. Paul Estev. Mr . French. EmmanuelGoldstein. Chest er Holmes. The Kid & Company. Lex Luthor.Lord Phreaker. Mike Salerno. The Shadow. Silent Switchman.and th e usual anonymous bunch

2600 is published by 2600 Enterprises. Inc . an eleemosynaryorganization.ANNUAL SUBSCRIPTION RATES $12. individual; $30. corporate;$20. overseas.LIFETIME SUBSCRIPTION $260. SPONSORSHIP: $2600.BACK ISSUES: $2 each. individual; $3 each. corporate;$2.50 each. overseas.MAKE CHECKS PAYABLE TO 2600 Enterprises. Inc.WRITE TO 2600. PO Box 752. Midd le Island. NY 11953-0752.TELEPHONE (516) 75 1-2600 . PRIVATE SECTOR BBS (201) 366-4431.ADVERTISING DEPARTMENT PO Box 762. Middle Island. NY11953-0762. Call for rates.ARTICLESUBMISSION AND LETTERS POBox 99. Mid dle Island. NY11953-0099. We readily accept anicles. letters. clippings. artwork. anddata 'for publication.POSTMASTER: This is private mail.

3-77

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VD . in foN e w s l i n eC i v i l EmE'l-qWeather"We a t h e r? ? ?

Ti meM u s i c?? ?Music:US Di a l TO n E ?Coven t r-y RadC r i c k e t . L.ine'?I"?"?

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6/8

~ # ~ # ~ ... ~ d #.!I #;:d #J-n - -- --

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Above is th e Bell System's new "musical keyboard." Insert shows tire digits oftelephone numbers in musical notation, just as they are sent across country.

P l a g i n g a t u n e fo r a t e l e p h o n e n u m b e r

Before you talk over some of the ne wBell System l o n ~distance circuits, youroperator presses keys like those shownabove, on e fo r each dil!it in the numberof the telephone you ar e calling. Eachkey sends ont a pair of tones, literally

s e t t i n ~the numher to music.In the community yo u are ( ' a l l i n ~ .

these tones activate the dial telephonesystem. to ~ i v eyo u th e numher yo u want.It is as if the operator reached across thecountry and dialed the numher fo r you.

B E L L T E L E P H O N E

This system. one of the newest developments of Bell Telephone Lahoratories, is already in us e on hundreds ofl o n ~ distance l ines radia t ing fromChicago, Cleveland, New York, Oaklandand Philadelphia, and between a n u m

her of other communities.I t will be extended steadily in other

parts of th e count ry-a g r o w i n ~exampleof the way Bell Telephone Lahoratoriesare ever f i n d i n ~ne w ways to give youhettel', faster telephone service.

L A B O R A T O R I E S

Expiorinllnd inventinl. devisinllnd perfecting.for continued improvements Ind economies in telephone service~ - 7 8

I i '~


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S Y S T t f ; 1 I 1 T ~ C I 1 L L YS P E I 1 K ~Electronic Tax Returns

B u s i n e s ~ e swill he ahle to file income ta x returnselectronically during the 19R7 tax season as part of the IRS'sgrowing automation program.

Individual19R6 returns ca n be electronically filed on ly fromseven cities.

Business returns ca n be filed via telecommunications ormagnetic tape an d must conform to IRS file formats.

Also. for the first time. elec tronic filers will be able to get anelectronic refund if the\' include a number on their formidentifying their hank. l he IRS will instruct the US Treasury tolise electronic funds transfer to credit the taxpayer's hankaccount.

This year the IR S processed 25.000 returns electronically an dnext year it can handle up to 120.000.

Software Makers Crash BBSWith the aid of a private investigator. a group of software

publishers has forced a pirate software bulletin board to closedown.

Th e publishers did not file an y charges against the operatorof the private Fidonet-hased hoard an d would only identify him

as living in the Cincinnati area. However. the group is lendingits support to a suit against The Dragon's Lair, which isoperated ou t of Brooklyn. New York.

Afterdiscovering the Ohio hoard. the president of Michtron.in Michigan. sent a letter to ~ e v e r a lother publishersannouncing his discovery. Soon after. he assemhled a group(inCluding the Software Publishers Association. DigitalResearch. and Antic Software) that hired private investigatorDennis Hel lman, wh o has investigated several pirateoperations.

Hellman explained to the sysop that the software puhlisherswould take legal action if the BBS. which they termed thelargest pirate BBS in the country. was not closed down. Theoperator of the IBM-PC with 44 megabytes complied.

Poor Service An UnderstatementTht" \\ 'all Strct" 1"1111\,11

Th eFederal

Communications Commissionissued a

warningto consumers about a company that offers what seems to be freelong-{\istance service.

Both the FCC and several state prosecutors contend thatIndependent Communications Network. Inc. ma y bemisleading consumers in the marketing of what the companycall:; the first long-{\istance "party -line sy stem."

The company leases lines from long-{\istance compa nies an dsigns up customers. who pay $100 a month to make anunlimited numher of long-{\istance calls on these shared lines.

In addition. customers themselves can receive as much as $25for each new c u ~ t o m e rthey can sign up for the service. "I t issimilar to Amway," said Larry Hartsough, chief of operationsfor Independent. Amway is often accused of creating pyramidschemes to bilk people ou t of their money by promising themwealth.

Hartsough estimated that Independent customers cannotcomplete a call 62% of the time. (AT&T ha s said that itslong-{\istance "blockage" rate is less than 1%.)

In Sa n Diego. prosecutors said they obtained a searchwarrant and raided an Independent agent, seeking evidence ofpossible violations of grand theft an d anti-pyramid statutes.They said the agent claimed that Independents system couldhandle 16.Roo calls il l once. It has been estimated that such acapacity would require :n.K()O WATS lines an d would makeIndependent on e of the largest users of W AT S lines in theworld.

Rural Ultraphones( , ' l l l f l ' I I " " ~ ' I " r "\\ rr"

Mountain States Telephone & Telegraph Company hasbegun a six-month field test of a fixed subscriber radio system.The system. known as Ultraphone. eliminates the high cost oflaying cables to remote rural areas with few subscrihers. Fightparties will take part in the test, some of whom have been

waiting 19 years for telephone service.Th e system uses low power digital radio to transmit

conversations from the residence to the central office. The costof providing traditional copper cahle service to callie ranchersin Glendo. Wyoming has always heen prohihitive.

Mountain Bell is charging each party a $4,R50 constructionfee. plus $20 a month. The ranchers will continue to receiveservice even if the Ultraphone test does not work out.

Ultraphone uses frequencies already allocated to telephonecompanies an d ca n transmit four conversations over the samehandwidth.

Local Toll-Free NumbersRell Telephone of Pennsylvania will introduce tw o toll-free

numher services that will permit customers to call h u s i n e ~ s e sfrom anywhere in a I .AT A (local access transport area) usin!! a

single telephone number designated for each subscrihingcompany.The new services. called One Number Service an d Custom

Routing service. will allow callers to dial a seemingly localse\'en-


8/8

letter department(continued/rom paKe 3-76)

Dear 2600:A \\ hile ago, you requested info on foreign telephone

systems, Well. here it is, I have lived in Saudi Arabia farthe last~ \ears, and your report on the Israeli telephone systemsounded vc n similar. The Saudi Telecom system is the same asthe Israel system as far as the payfones an d way" to defeat themgo, Aranco, the oil company there has their own telefonenetwork: it ha s 9 conference lines, each with a 75 person limit.The phone number for there is 0 11-966-3-876-750( 1-9), A ~I is311, TIY is 8 D - D I 0, weather record ing is 875-2424, There aresneral BBS's in the kingdom, XD-7R5(L2l. X26-4990, 678-2395, 572-38X4, an d there is also an E-Mail service at X9X-0400,To dial an y of theseiust add 011-966-3 an d the phone number.ha\e fun an d see you there'

Readers:I Rt \ hear aholll other places,

Dear 2600:

Mr. Tracer

I would like to as k yOU or the readers two questions, First. I\\ondered why, on a standaTd telephone, there ar e all of th eletters in th e alphabet except "Q"and " z n ) It might be a.strange 'question bu t I would still like to know wh\', ' .

Also, I was making a long distance call to the ~ 13 a n ~ a c o ' d e ,

from a pay phone one day an d the number I \\as calling wasbusy, I tried a busy verification to see if they would charge mefor it. In this case, they did no t but other times they wanted- -money (d o you know why, sometimes they charge mcan d othertimes they don'!')), When th e local operator went to call theoperator who does the busy \erificatior! she first called anumber which gave he r a recording that said "X U plus 042plus", Wouldn't this be Yen' helpful to amone using a blue box,an d do yOU know that number or how to get'it')) Th e operatorused th e term "BY" in place of busy \erification an d the otheroperator used the term "OD"to mean out of order. I guess it'sjLlst some of th e operator lingo_

Het KapDear Het Kap:

7 an d Q are no t on the dial hecause when the eight numher,1that ha,'e letters (2-9) are each give/] three letters there are /I\ '()lef/ ()\'er. 7 an d Q are the least (i-equ entlr used letters in thealphahet, so ther I n ' r e no t used. HOII'e\'cr, on some olderphones, ro u marfind a 7 on the 0 ker.

Hopef!llIl'. ro u rememher that exchanKes used to hal'e namessuch as PLa::a-Ifc)r the (5IfJ) 751 exhanKe.

In response to rour other question, there are no charKes lo rinterstate ,'erif/cation calls, hu t there are charKes/c)r intrastatelonK distance charKes. "813 pIllS 042 plus "would he the numherto dial to an immrd operator, hu t in thi s case the operator.1 saidthat ther Kot nothinK lI'hen ther did this fc)r ~ s . .Dear 2600:

I'm a new subscriber and would like to contribute some

interesting information.First. there's a computer at 8005387002 which accepts a10-digit DTMF sequence an d speaks them back at YOU. Th einput must be ten digits with *} 1 ,A,B,C an d 0 tones acceptedbut no t pronounced. a nd is more forgiving than most C O. \ asfar as frequency tolerance goes. Tape-recorded DTMF inputswill decode fine if your tape speed an d audio levels ar e up topar.

I'm emplmed bv the cellular telephone industry and wouldglad'" write an article on cellular phreaking if there's aminterest. Th e article will haw to be a bit on the technical ,idehowC\er. an d the techniques outlined will require knowledge ofelectronics an d hexadecimal math and access to a PROMprogrammer.

Bernie S,

Dear Bernie:The numher I'OU gave hc/ongs to a COl17p(Jllr fhat .1'1'11.1

C(/lIIjlt11em that Kenerates Ipeech am i is actil'ated hI' tollchtones. It II 'ill he a good tool/i)r those II ho need to decode /)lwf1enumher.l. Radio Shack sells a chip that is called a rouch tOil'decoder; malhe on e o(our clectronicallrprolicient readers canIlmduce a schematic to make this chip \\ 'orkji)f us.

J,Vith reKards to writ inK articles: please IIfite ahoUl cellularphones, hu t IIfite IlI 'O articles: Thefir.lt should he an ( ) \ ' en ' i c I Io/hmt' cellular phones work, h( m calls are routed, alld hi m II'ecan call a cellular phone. Include .Iome sample phone numhersor perhaps a directon' o/numhers to call. Trr to an\\I'er simplequestions that people wh o hal'e not had a chance to use cellularphones mal' ask.

Th,fn,i 'oll (,tIn tell us hOlt' lI'e can phreak them. I( it i.1technical, tn- th gi,'e some re(erence sources. Tn- to make itinteresting, SO,e\'en i f we lack the education an d resources to/Iracrice 'cellular phre'ak ing, \I e lI'ou/d lI'ant to read it.

Fin(llh', f()r those o f \'Ou interested in IITiting fClr us, ou rmailho,)i.1 all)'aI'Y;)pCf;, Send all articles an d letters to 2600, POBo x 99, Middle/I/and, NY I I 953-()099. While I l l ' don't {){ll 'IITiten af the moment, li e do provide free suhscriptions to~ t e a d \ ' 5 u p p l i e r s .!(rou hm'e quest ions, call us at 516 7512600. I(muge t the machine, lem'e a message an d I\ 'e 'II call hack.

8 0 0 - 2 2 3 - 1 0 118 0 0 - 2 2 3 - 3 0 4 48 0 0 - 2 2 8 - 11118 0 0 - 3 2 3 - 0 9 0 58 0 0 - 3 2 8 - 1 4 9 0

8 0 0 - 3 6 8 - 3 3 4 38 0 0 - 4 2 4 - 9 4 9 48 0 0 - 4 2 4 - 9 4 9 48 0 0 - 5 2 1 - 0 0 1 38 0 0 - 5 2 1 - 0 0 3 48 0 0 - 5 2 1 - 0 2 4 88 0 0 - 5 2 2 - 5 4 6 58 0 0 - 8 2 8 - 6 3 2 1

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2600: The Hacker Quarterly (Volume 3, Number 10, October 1986)

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Transcript of 2600: The Hacker Quarterly (Volume 3, Number 10, October 1986)