Beige Box Tutorial [noobs listen up]

[insignia]

Ok this tutorial was written by me, I will edit as errors are found which if I can try, Not many will be seen. I will also add photographs for the n00bs, most of us real phreaks out there already know what a Beige Box is and what it is. For those of you who have no idea what one is, how it is related to phone phreaking and want to know the actual construction of creatine one, Read On.

First and formost, a Beige Box or commonly called a "LineMan's Headset" is your standard house phone with a stripped phone cord. Now, some Phreaking / Tech Notes:

Most TNI (Telephone Network Interface) Boxes can be located outside of either your residential home, or commercial work enviorment. Mostly in the United States Phone Phreaking is not as big of a deal as Computer Hacking, But what people dont realize is. At one time or another, any system, Phone or Computer can be hacked with the right exploitation of the particular vaulnerbility.

Here are some Photos of TNI Boxes.






Now the construction of a Beige Box is very simple. First and formost, you will need a regular landline phone. NOT CELLULAR! See image below for example.



Now, notice that it has all the keys on the actual headset, such as numbers 9-0, pound (#) and star (*) and ReDial, Mute and on the side there is a small switche. Tone/Pulse. What this means is you can choose between touch tones and pulse tones. Most phones these days are all touch tone. So make sure that the switch is on Tone.

Now, with the small curly cord that dangles from the bottom of the phone, (go buy one they are like $1.50 USD at your local retail store) You have two options here. I realize that most Phreaking Documents out there scattered across the internet usually say you need to strip the wires and add some roachclips (alligator clips) on the end of the red & green wires. Im going to have you take a different approach. In most cases all you will need to do is remove the test line and just "jack in". (Expirenced phreaks will know what I mean).

Now in some case scenarios, Sure I'd bet you'd need to do some "alterations"
to your Box. Every so often this will need to be done but incase it doesnt, dont waste your time. After all, the whole purpose of creating a beige box is to use someone elses line as your own.
Now take out the testline, you can see it plugged in. And insert your cord. If you here a dialtone, Boom your on thier line. If you dont hear anything, the phone is dead. Try again somewhere else.

This of course is illegal so I would not recommend it, Not to mention creating a beige box dont make anyone a phreak. beige boxing is thought as a very pathetic way of doing things, for many reasons. Heres some common sence slapped in your face just for shits and giggles.

Look at it this way, Say you have your own phone line, No big deal you like the fact your can communicate with friends and family yada, yada, yada. But say a wannabe phreak comes up in the dark one fine evening with his Beige box and makes a few calls to Holland, London, China and all this and whatever else he/she wishes. And guess what? Yup, you got it. You look at your phone bill and the charges are charged directly to you. Not very nice now is it? I didnt think so. You see, when you phreak, use common sence, dont use a beige box because the owner of the line will get the phone bill (lets face it, waiting for the mailman is a tedious task LOL) and be able to view all the numbers you dialed. In most cases, Im sure he/she will call some of the numbers back and see who you are. Dont be a moron.

Please bare in mind reading this tutorial does not make you a phone phreak nor does using a Virus Creation Kit make you a Hacker. If you really wanna learn this stuff the best thing to do is to learn. Read alot of technical manuals too, This information may seem boring to you and if so, Just quit while your ahead. While I write this for strictly educational purposes I take no legal responsibility for your actions. You do what you want. I warned you.

Insignia

[Narada]

Great job! Much easier than buying youself a butt set too.

[spiderman]

Nice tut dude. Makes sense for the most part. When you jack in to the test line, does that make the rest of the phones in the house your phreaking go dead? Say they pick up their phones, are they gonna hear a dial tone, a dead phone, or you talking? Thanks for the info. I like this tut

[Tim]

They are going to hear you talking, unless you make your phone monitor-only. You could make your phone monitor-only by modding an SPST switch into the handset, and wiring the microphone line so that it would pass through a simple resistor, instead of the actual mic, when the switch was in the "on" position. The "off" position on the switch would allow the audio to pass through the microphone as normal, allowing you to talk.

I use a "beige box" often when working on my own telephone equipment in my house. It's really just a homemade buttset. I've always considered a "linemans handset" to be a nice kind that you'd buy from the store. I wouldn't call a beige box a linemans handset, i'd call it a buttset, though. That's just me, though.

If you want to box off some home person's line, use a divertor/extender. That way, the person who gets the bill will see a whole bunch of calls to a single number. If you can't do that, then use carrier access codes to select a different carrier. Bills from carriers other than the presubscribed one sometimes take months to come in the mail. Oh yeah, when I say "presubscribed", I mean the carrier used for normal direct distance dialing. yeah. But you're better off boxing from business lines, if you're going to box at all. If you do it sparingly, and pick a large business, your calls might get lost in the flow, y'know. Just because some businesses make so many calls that a fewmoremight not get noticed.

Just my 2 cents.

Oh yeah, and by the way, 2 more cents. If you're going to try and connect to someone's TNI, pick a newer area. Older areas that have cables running into the house, strung from a pole, they usually don't have TNI's. Really old areas, or really new areas (in my city, anyways) seem to be more likely to have TNI's. Areas that have underground cables usually have TNI's too. Anyways. That's 2 more cents. Also, you'll probably need alligator clips to connect if you're going to box using a TNI. Also, if you ever use your beige box in a commercial setting (like in the telecom room of a business), you'll probably encounter termination blocks of some kind. Like termination blocks that do a whole lot of lines. Like 66 blocks, 110 blocks, or BIX blocks. You'll need alligator clips, or if you're really elite, maybe a jack built specifically to fit on that plug. Anyways. That's it, probably.

That's my 2 cents.

[insignia]

Nice tut dude. Makes sense for the most part. When you jack in to the test line, does that make the rest of the phones in the house your phreaking go dead? Say they pick up their phones, are they gonna hear a dial tone, a dead phone, or you talking? Thanks for the info. I like this tut

Regarding your question spidey, In most cases if you were on someones line they could theoredically hear you, Which is why in most cases, hold the mute button as you "jack in" this way if the person is on the line, They cannot hear you. Id recommend a mute switch rather than a button but thats just me.

[Black.Solaris]

Here's a solution to the "do I need alligator clips or not?" question.

Just keep the normal cord on your phone, and make one of these for when you need alligator clips .

Yay for options! Options are a good thing!

[Narada]

Here's a solution to the "do I need alligator clips or not?" question.

Just keep the normal cord on your phone, and make one of these for when you need alligator clips .

Yay for options! Options are a good thing!

Hehe, that's one of Delly's tuts. Slick one too, I might add.

[Tim]

Delly?

[KeMiKaLPHReaK]

Delly is a member of BU... D31337 if I am not mistaken...

[Narada]

Delly is a member of BU... D31337 if I am not mistaken...

Aye, I met him back on HackerLounge a couple years ago. Freakin' smart kid.