8 Dec
1998
8 Dec
'98
4:22 a.m.
-----Original Message-----
From: Tony Duell <ard(a)p850ug1.demon.co.uk>
To: Discussion re-collecting of classic computers
<classiccmp(a)u.washington.edu>
Date: Tuesday, 8 December 1998 13:35
Subject: Re: WHOOPEE!
If you think the first paragraph is bad, you should try
the UK at about
the same time. You had to rent the entire modem from the GPO (Post
Office, who also ran the telephone system). And you had to have a
'barrier box' (a box containing zeners and fuses) on the RS232 port of
the modem, just in case your terminal decided to send mains down to the
modem.
Australia was almost as bad. The then PMG Dept. (The phone 'company' was
part of the Post Office at that time) were rather hostile about plugging
anything but a phone in. Initially a "line isolation" unit was required
between any 3rd party device and the phone, and only a PMG technician could
install it. Eventually, they started to test and approve the modems etc
themselves, but it was virtually impossible to get anything homebuilt
through that process, since it involved providing examples for the PMG to
test to destruction by pouring enourmous voltages into them to ensure that
they would not permit said destructive voltage to reach the phone system.
Even now, we can't legally use modems that are not Austel approved, even if
they are ok under FCC or British Telecom regs. There was a time when lots
of BBS's ran illegal HST Modems, which were not imported into Australia, and
hence not type approved at the time.
Cheers
Geoff
Computer Room Internet Cafe
Port Pirie
South Australia.
netcafe(a)pirie.mtx.net.au
8 Dec
8 Dec
8:26 a.m.
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11:41 a.m.
On Tue, 8 Dec 1998, Tony Duell wrote:
That's roughly how it is in the UK at the moment.
All devices 'directly
or indirectly connected' to the phone system have to be approved. This
includes acoustic couplers, BTW, which have to be unable to send certain
tones down the line.
Why? Is the UK public network still using in-band signaling? We can't
blue box in the states anymore. Most of the switches nationwide have been
upgraded to digital, out-of-band signaling.
Sellam Alternate e-mail: dastar(a)siconic.com
------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Always being hassled by the man.
Coming in 1999: Vintage Computer Festival 3.0
See http://www.vintage.org/vcf for details!
[Last web site update: 12/07/98]
12:27 p.m.
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12:54 p.m.
[Can't blue box in the US anymore]
Ehehehe.... Do you know this from experience?
Has anyone here actually done this? I once tried recording the payhone
quarter tones, but it didn't work. Jeff once was nearly arrested for
fixing a payphone - He was stranded at a wal-mart, the handset cord had been
severed, so he got a toolkit fron his truck and went to work.
The police and two Ameritech linemen showed up - The police wanted to haul
him off, but the linemen said what he did was fine and so he didn't get
in trouble.
-------
1:42 p.m.
New subject: OT stories about phone phreaking
On Tue, 8 Dec 1998, Daniel A. Seagraves wrote:
Ehehehe.... Do you know this from experience?
No. By the time I got heavy into phreaking ESS was a stark reality and
long gone were the days of the analog CO switch. Where I used to live, we
had one of the last StepByStep switches in the country. They swapped it
out with an AT&T 5ESS a few months after I started toying with the phone
system. I did manage to get pieces of the old switch and they're still in
my dad's barn. I did manage to get access to the 5ESS but PacBell found
out about it and they weren't terribly amused.
Has anyone here actually done this? I once tried
recording the payhone
quarter tones, but it didn't work. Jeff once was nearly arrested for
Recording the quarter tones works as long as they are loud enough coming
out of the phone and you have a good recorder with fresh batteries. The
playback must be within 5% tolerance of the recording. It still works on
a good number of payphones but after the Radio Shack touch tone dialer mod
article came out in the Summer 1990 issue of 2600 every teenager in
America was now walking around with the most proliferate toll fraud device
in the history of telecom and the telephone company eventually found a way
to filter the quarter tones from the mouthpiece albeit several years
later. I remember when my friend and I first built ours we called a bank
in Japan. It was like $16 dollars in quarters. The operator must've
thought we were wacky.
Nowadays, any Bell payphone that's been upgraded for hearing-aid
compatibilty also got the upgrade that thwarts the "red box" (any device
which makes quarter tones). Of course, this trick never worked on the
privately owned payphones (COCOTs) since they didn't use Bell's ACTS
(Automated Coin Toll System) computer for billing, but rather have
internal coin detection mechanisms and databases for rating calls.
You can still find payphones that the red box will work on but its getting
harder all the time.
fixing a payphone - He was stranded at a wal-mart, the
handset cord had been
severed, so he got a toolkit fron his truck and went to work.
The police and two Ameritech linemen showed up - The police wanted to haul
him off, but the linemen said what he did was fine and so he didn't get
in trouble.
:)
PS. I wrote a program on my Psion 3a called the "3aBox". Its basically a
Blue/Red/Green and Silver box all in one. You select the box you want
from the menu. For the blue box, you can type in
whatever string you want
it to outpulse, for instance K415121S (K = Key pulse, S =
Start) and then
hit enter. It then plays the tones out the speaker. The Red box has a
menu that lets you select quarter/dime/nickel. The Green box gives you a
menu that lets you select Coin Return, Coin Collect, Ringback and Operator
Release. And the silver box is just a DTMF dialer.
If you're interested in this program, e-mail me and I'll send you the
source. You'll need a serial link to upload it to your Psion. It should
also work on the series 3c, and maybe the Series 5, but I haven't gotten a
5 yet so I don't know for sure.
Sellam Alternate e-mail: dastar(a)siconic.com
------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Always being hassled by the man.
Coming in 1999: Vintage Computer Festival 3.0
See http://www.vintage.org/vcf for details!
[Last web site update: 12/07/98]
9 Dec
9 Dec
7:25 a.m.
> That's roughly how it is in the UK at the
moment. All devices 'directly
> or indirectly connected' to the phone system have to be approved. This
> includes acoustic couplers, BTW, which have to be unable to send certain
> tones down the line.
Why? Is the UK public network still using in-band
signaling? We can't
blue box in the states anymore. Most of the switches nationwide have been
upgraded to digital, out-of-band signaling.
:))
We never could blue box at all here in Germany :( Beside touch tone
dialing ant the unit pulse there has never been any signaling via
the line - and the unit pulse was only send from PBX to the phone.
Payment calculation has always been local within the payphone, back
in the '50s and '60s using relais driven electro mechanical counters
(covered by _real_ metall to avoide any influence thru strong electro
magnets :).
Gruss
H.
--
Ich denke, also bin ich, also gut
HRK
9363
days inactive
9364
days old
6 comments
5 participants
participants (5)
-
ard＠p850ug1.demon.co.uk -
dastar＠ncal.verio.com -
DSEAGRAV＠toad.xkl.com -
Hans.Franke＠mch20.sbs.de -
netcafe＠pirie.mtx.net.au