The Ocean County Phone Punx Presents alt.phreaking Faq version 1.3 created-August 11, 1997 updated-January 11, 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 11th of every month This file can be downloaded at the OCPP-http://members.aol.com/MohawkPunk/main.html Comments or questions can be mailed to XOCPPX@aol.com This is an early version of the FAQ and not everything may be correct. Let us know of any mistakes that may be present and any questions you would like to see added to the FAQ. 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. 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 somemore. 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 at all. If you really want to learn about phreaking, you're gonna have to sacrifice some time. 4. I need help with phreaking in a foreign country It's tough to find phreaks in the same state let alone 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. Your best bet is to post a message like "looking for phreaks in the UK". 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 stand 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 whihch 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 from and phreaks use them when biegeboxing. 11. 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. 12. 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. 13. 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. 14. 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. 15. 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. Editor: Mohawk and the OCPP Writers: Mr. Seuss, Checkmate, Redbox111, MR.Sonik, MMX KiLLa, and the OCPP Ocean County Phone Punx http://members.aol.com/MohawkPunk/main/html "putting the terror in terrorism" <732>