DnA 2-12: Beige Boxing From the Ground Up

eZine lover (@eZine)

Published in

DnA Electronic Magazine

· 11 May 2023

Basic's of Beige Boxing
DnA Magazine
5/19/93
Written and Edited by Phax

DISCLAIMER * DISCLAIMER * DISCLAIMER

This publication is intended for entertainment only. The author is against any illegal activity and doesn't support it.<snicker> Never should any of the idea's contained in this document ever be used. Once again this is for entertainment purposes only.

SECTION ONE: BACKROUND OF BEIGE BOXING

A beige box is just like a Lineman's handset. It allows you to go out to a phone box and make phree phone calls to your friends. Also with some modifications to your beige box it will let you listen in on people's phone calls. This is perfect for getting any kind of information that you could ever want. Also because a beige box is like a Lineman's handset it is easy to use. After all a dumb lineman has to be able to use the thing.

SECTION TWO: BUILDING A BEIGE BOX

If you already have a beige box then you can skip this section and go onto the next one. If not then read on to find out how to build one. To build a basic beige box you will need the following materials.

A one piece phone <perferably pulse/tone switchable>
A pair of alligator clips <any color but mine are red and black>
Wirecutters, wire strippers, long nose pliers, PVC electrical tape, and a soldering iron.

You need to cut the phone cord<the part that plugs into the wall> about 4 ft from the phone. Then you will need to expose and strip only the RED and GREEN wires<My phone had only the RED and GREEN wires but other's might be different>. Then connect the RED alligator clip to the RED wire and the BLACK alligator clip to the GREEN wire. Solder these on and wrap the connections in eletrical tape. Pretty simple isn't it?

To add the tap feature to your beige box you will need a .47 microfarad 250 V capacitor(non electrolytic), an audio matching transformer: eight ohms to 1000 ohms (Radio Shack Cat. #273-1380 will be used in this example), a DPDT switch, and some wire.

Open the phone. Locate the point where the line cord enters. The RED wire is the RING and the GREEN is the TIP. Disconnect the RING from the phone circuitry and connect it to the center of one pole of the switch. Run a line from one leg to the point where the RING used to be. Connect the capacitor to the other leg. Solder the other capacitor lead to the transformer's BLUE lead. Connect the BLACK lead to the tip. Ignore the GREEN transformer lead (cut it off if it annoys you). The high impedance side is complete.

Now the eight ohm side: Find the earphone leads. (If the colors give any clue as to polarity put the switch on the positive one.) Connect the WHITE wire from the transformer to one of the speaker wires. Disconnect the other speaker wire from the main circuitry and solder it to the center of the free pole on the switch. Attach the red transformer lead to the leg on this pole which corresponds to the capacitor's position on the other pole, i.e. the Monitor position. The remaining switch terminal should be connected to the point from which the speaker wire was removed. With this modification the switchhook becomes somewhat pointless. The ringer can also be removed to make room for the transformer. Test the switch, and mount it. The author would like to thank the crew at 2600 and especially The Phoenix for the previous article. Taken from 2600 Spring 1993 pgs 14-15.

SECTION THREE: TESTING YOUR BOX

Now that you have your beige box it is time to go have some fun. Well what can you do with a beige box you ask? Well first I would just take the face plate off your phone jack and expose the wires. Hook the RED clip to the RED wire and the BLACK clip to the GREEN wire. See if you get a dial tone. If you do then your beige box is working. If not then try some other colors and see if you get a dial tone. If not go back and see if you made a mistake.

SECTION FOUR: YOUR FIELD KIT

You will need some things in your "Field Kit" before you go beige boxing.

Mini Mag Light<can't stress how important this is!>
Your beige box of course.
7/16" socket wrench.
Some dark clothes
Gloves

With these materials you should just about be set. If you don't know what the materials are for we will go into further depth in the following articles.

SECTION FIVE: WHERE TO BEIGE BOX

My favorite place to beige box is in apartment complexes. They usually have big boxes with the most phone lines. Offices are a close second for just about the same reason. Or you can find the little boxes along the side of the road close to some bushes and beige from there. The big boxes are almost 5 feet tall and contain about a hundred phone lines. You find these in apartment complexes and around office buildings. The smaller ones are about 2-3 feet tall and contain about 20 lines if you are lucky. Do it really late at night 11-12 pm or early morning up to about 4am but that is pushing it.

SECTION SIX: DOING IT

The first thing that you will need to do is take your 7/16 inch socket wrench and find the bolt that should be on the front<of the big boxes>. Or on the little one's there should be one on each side. Give the bolts about a fourth of a turn and open the box. I will use a big box for this example. Once the box is open you will see rows and rows of bolts. The ones around my area have one line of ORANGE bolts and one line of WHITE bolts. Find two bolts right next to each other. Hook one clip up to the ORANGE bolt and one clip up to the WHITE bolt. You should get a dial tone. If not then change the clips around. Now you should have a dial tone so dial out to your friends or what ever. You might have noticed a little reel of wire on the inside door of the box. You can detach this reel and hook it up to the bolts as you normally would with your beige. Now you can unroll this wire and go to the nearest bush and then hook your beige up to the wire and dial out like normal. Be sure to shut the door of the box first though.

SECTION SEVEN: LAP TOP

I have a beige not built onto a one piece phone but built into a little box with the alligator clips coming out of one of the ends and a normal phone jack to plug the phone into. I think that you can see where I am going with this. I just plug my modem into this little box and hook the beige upto the phone box. Now you can call out with a lap top. This is great for avoiding those pesky long distance charges. Also if you have to do Call back verification and you don't want to give out your real phone number then you can have the other computer call you back on a "stolen" line. How do you get the number of the line you are on you ask? Use an ANI<Automatic Number Identification>. Any phreak VMB would be more than glad to give this to you I am sure. If you don't know of any then go out and find one.

SECTION EIGHT: CONCLUSION

Well I hope that this has given you a little look into the world of phreaking with a beige box. I hope that this helps you. Remember that the author in no way promotes any illegal activity.

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