T E X T F I L E S (original) (raw)

Phone Phreaking: Blue Boxing

To a young person dabbling in the underground in the early 1980s, few concepts were as powerful, alluring, or exciting as the "Blue Box". A number of simple circuits enclosed with push buttons, it changed everything in the relationship between the Phone Company (Ma Bell) and her customers (The Peons).

Created in the late 1960's and working well into the 1980s (and maybe beyond), the Blue Box took advantage of a design flaw in the entire telephone system: it was possible to gain access to parts of phone switching equipment and send them false signals to make the machinery do whatever you wanted.

With the blast of a 2600hz tone down a telephone line (signifying you Meant Serious Business), you could seize the telephone trunk and gain a sort of "Administrator" access to the phone switching equipment. And since operators were unlikely to do the sort of wild experimentation that a phreak with a blue box would try, all sorts of amazing things would happen with a few button presses.

The Blue Box was a tangible Swiss Army Knife of the telephone, a powerful tool that gave the whole world to you in a small box. Little like it has been seen since. It inspired dozens and dozens of other phone-related home-grown circuits, who all were given the label of "(Color) Box" in homage.

Filename Size Description of the Textfile
<40bluebox.txt> 12474 Blue Box Plans (40 Columns, with Borders!)
<advfreq.txt> 9226 Advanced Blueboxing, by Guru Josh (December 13, 1991)
<anar5.txt> 11663 The Building a Blue Box
<at&tcode.txt> 9190 AT&T/BOC Routing Codes List
<bbbuild.txt> 10649 How to Build a Blue Box
<bbfreq.txt> 24514 The Real "Info's" about Blue Boxing Version 1.01 by Phreaker's Paradise (August 5, 1991)
<bbnumber.txt> 1751 Collection of 1-800 Numbers that will Drop a Trunk in ESS
1004 Blue Box Frequency List
<bethome1.phk> 9545 Blue Boxing Information, Part 1
<bhbb1.hac> 9837 Better Homes and Blue Boxing Part I, by Mark Tabas
<bhbb2.hac> 14294 Better Homes and Blue Boxing Part II: Practical Applications
<bhbb3.hac> 10005 Better Homes and Blue Boxing Part III: Advanced Signalling
<blubxrus.box> 3926 How to Blue Box into Russia, by Mark Tabas
<blue.box> 17497 Blue Box Plans, by Mr. America
<blue0002.box> 8319 Basic Construction, Troubleshooting and Adjustment of the Blue Box
<blue0003.box> 4782 Blue Boxing Safely Today, by the Micro Master
<blue1.phk> 22755 The Real Info About Blue Boxing from Hannover, United Germany
<blue10.box> 14643 Blue Box Construction, by Mr. Nibblemaster
<blue11.txt> 2816 Using a Blue Box as Associated with PicturePhone
<blue2.box> 2560 Assorted Blue Box Frequencies
<blue2.phk> 5301 COMPLETELY (but humorously) screwed up transcription of a Blue Boxing File
<blue2.txt> 14336 Overview of Making a Blue Box
<blue3.box> 19929 Various Blue Box Information
<blue3.con> 4131 Blue Box Plans: An Original OSUNY Phile
<blue3.phk> 11724 Building a Blue Box
<blue4.box> 55618 Compilation of many Blue Boxing Textfiles
<blue5.box> 4785 Blue Boxing, by The Micro Master
<blue5.phk> 12449 Building your own Blue Box, by Jester Sluggo
4480 Some Things To Do With Your Blue Box When You're Bored
<blue6.box> 30791 Complete Overview of the Technical Reasons behind Blue Boxing
<blue7.box> 13827 The Art and Practice of Blue Boxing, by Nickie Halflinger
<blue8.box> 8101 Some Advice on Using a Blue Box
<blue9.box> 6085 Blue Boxing Information
<blue9.txt> 16000 Informative Overview of the History and Aspects of Blue Boxing
<blue%5Fart.txt> 13258 The Art and Practice of Blue Boxing
<blue%5Fsec.txt> 11742 "Secrets of the Little Blue Box" by Ron Rosenbaum (40 col. version, from the Greek Inn BBS)
<bluebeep.txt> 47087 Documentation on the BlueBEEP Boxing Program
<bluebh.box> 24708 Better Homes and Blue Boxing, Parts II and III
<bluebox.doc> 6784 Various Blue Boxing Information
<bluebox.txt> 12744 Basic Construction and Operation of the Blue Box, from OSUNY BBS
<blueboxi.txt> 4617 Advanced Blue Boxing, from 13th Floor Enterprises
<bluefact.txt> 2172 Don't Believe the Hype of Lamers! Blue Boxing in the UK is Dead! By 2Tuff/Crystal
<bluelex.box> 13505 Blue Box Plans by Lex Luthor
1664 Making a TI/994a into a Blue Box
<boxbust.txt> 1213 Some Guys In France Got Busted for Blue Boxing!
<boxing4.txt> 3833 How to Blue Box Into Russia by Mark Tabas
<bprison.txt> 2343 Blue Boxing in 1991 (Phreaking Without Knowledge)
<bxblue.txt> 1411 Well, Dudes, Here's How you Use a Blue Box
<deadblue.phk> 2886 What may be the End of Blue Boxing, by the Kook (1986)
<dialing.txt> 9588 Advanced Blueboxing by Guru Josh (December 13, 1991)
<euro.box> 22646 Information about Blue Boxing in Other Countries
<eurobbox.txt> 22733 The Real Information About Blue Boxing in Eurpose and Other Countries by Phreaker's Paradise (August 5, 1991)
<jolly.box> 32311 Jolly Box Plans (Creates a Blue box on a computer)
<laymans.box> 5369 Blue Boxes, by the Technician (A Layman's Definition)
<manual7.s> 18656 TSC Multi-Frequency Dialer v7.1: The Bluebox Program for Atari ST/STE
<misp15.phk> 12497 Blue Box Information/Construction, from The Overlord
<nofilter.txt> 1958 The Blue Box Filter, by Lord Raphael (December 29, 1991)
<obb.phk> 8583 The Basic Construction, Troubleshooting, and Adjustment of a Blue Box
<phoney.phk> 1474 Secrets of the Little Blue Box (Short) by AP&P
<portbb.txt> 5877 Portable Blue Box Plans by Ford Prefect (May 21, 1984)
<ukblue.phk> 4782 The UK Blue Box Plans, using 2280hz.
<warn0003.txt> 3175 A Very Big Italian Warning To Stop using Blue Boxes
<warn0004.txt> 3164 Warning about using Blue Box Numbers in Germany, by TRAX
<yabb.txt> 5739 Documentation for the Yet Another Blue Box Software, Version 0.93, January 1992

There are 64 files for a total of 717,526 bytes.