Radon’s Intro to Beige Boxing
Radon’s Introduction to Beige Boxing
created by: DiaLeR / Radon
edited by: Trent Keller
As the telecommunications industry advances, basic phreaking techniques have become obsolete as they exploited open and obvious vulnerabilities in what was an antiquated system. However, phreaking is alive and well for those risk takers and adventurers willing to learn the modern techniques and clever enough to avoid getting caught. In this guide you will be introduced to the Lineman Handset, otherwise known as the Beige Box.
The Lineman’s handset allows you to make calls from other people’s phone lines. It can be useful for many purposes basically equating to the motivation to make free long distance calls or placing truly anonymous calls that are untraceable to you.
You may be able to acquire a commercial Lineman’s Handset, but if you are on a budget, resource shy, or an electronics geek you can build your own.
Construction
All materials necessary to construct your own basic Beige Box can be easily obtained from a place like Radio Shack. You should obtain a low cost phone that you can modify and is reasonably portable. There is a Cobra brand handset phone, which is not much larger than an analog cell phone and is one unit (hangs up by placement face down). I love it for its size and portability. Try to find a phone that is complete in one handheld unit as opposed to a traditional two-unit phone where the handset is attached to a base via a cord.
Obtain some wire clips, alligator clips with jaws approximately one inch long, seat shrink tubing and electrical tape.
With phone in hand cut the RJ-11 head off the wire. Typically there are only two conductors. If there are four then the phone was designed for a two lines and although still acceptable to use is likely not ideal as dual line phone units are typically larger and have unnecessary buttons. Remember, if you are sneaking around with this thing; you want it small and concealable.
At any rate you want the middle two, typically they red and green wires, and if there are only two that is great. Strip the wire sheath back about five inches exposing the inner insulated wires. If four wires are present remove the outer two with wire cutters. Slide an appropriate cut to size piece of heat shrink tubing over each of the two wires. Choose thick yet small tubing to give the fragile wire strength to prevent future breakage from fatigue. Attach the alligator clips, slide the tube over the clip to wire joint. It is recommended you solder the connection. The heat shrink tube should then be adjusted to cover the solder joint and heat applied to shrink the tube down onto the wire and joint.
If you don’t have heat shrink tubing use the electrical tape. Be warned, this is a crappy thing to do, taping it up. The tape always ends up coming off and getting all sticky, especially if you carry the thing around in your pocket.
The finished product is basically a phone with what was formerly the wall connector now being two wires extending out with an alligator clip on each wire.
Testing From your D-MARC
It is legal for you to test your Beige Box on the D-MARC of your own home. Locate the D-MARC and clip the alligator clips onto the posts where the phone line enters the home. These will either be color coded (the old standard is red and green). Do some research and become familiar with telecommunications wiring, color codes, and polarity. A guide to color codes will also be available here.
Using from Phone Box
Some people’s D-MARC is securely inside their home. Other people have a box outside their home that you can access with a screwdriver. Hooking your Beige Box up to the correct two posts gives you the ability to make phone calls from that home.
If the D-MARC is inside a resident’s home, the wire that runs from the pole to the D-MARC is still outdoors and often easily accessible.
If you have ever watched a phone repairman, you have probably seen that person climb the pole and connect his Lineman’s Handset where the wire terminates. Wherever you accesses the two conductors of a residential line you will have access to make calls with your Beige Box.
Pay Phone
From a public COCOT pay phone you can tap into the wires that go to the handset and hook up there. This is probably the most fun because you are now picking on some evil greedy telecommunications company as opposed to some dude’s home phone.
Wireless
Create a Beige Box using a wireless phone receiver. Under the cover of darkness you can hide a small enough unit in someone’s external phone box. With the handset you will be able to place calls any time safely inside a car or something from the street without being obvious and crouching next to someone’s home.
The possibilities are endless and limited only by your imagination. Consider other functions such as application of a 56K modem, using a war dialer and so on.
Disclaimer: Yeah don’t break the law and stuff. Don’t be a jerk and get electrocuted either. Don’t do anything you have read in this document. Get people’s permission before you tap into their phone line cause you know they are probably going to be ok with it and stuff. Don’t break the law. Don’t listen to anything and do anything.