Its amazing I didn’t end up in jail. I built a few of the descramblers and worst of all ended up with a 300 baud modem when the local chevrolet place Threw out a bunch of ‘junk’. It was a non hayes bell modem and a pain in the ass to use but I would have taken a bullet for it. I built a blue box and later a black box. Then I got busy with free phone calls. Phreaking BBS’s all over with great plans on taking control of the world around you. I still remember the date that they replaced the old analog switch in my town.
I was kinda sad I was an adult when the hacking PBX’s were a thing in the 90’s. I kept up with that culture and those kids were having a great time taking over corporate phone systems and night and socializing. I still have a habit every now and then of picking up a random courtesy phone and finding the paging extension. I know it marks me as a huge nerd but I had a small handheld dtmf tone generator in my pocket everywhere I went up until I got married. I know a lot of default passwords used by systems. Most library PC’s and hotel business centers are depressingly easy to get into to. All due to a fear many tiny techs have of changing a default password.
For a period of time in the 90’s you could get access to phone systems remotely. Kids and some adults were using them as hangouts of a sort and there was a lot of them that were used to jump into the net for free. I read about it more than experiencing it. Like I said I had grown up and it was no longer the draw it once was.
Should have bought a subscription to Radio and Electronics. I built a descrambler using their schematics.
Holy crap some of it still exists. https://schematicsforfree.com/files/Video/Circuits/Descrambling/1984-02 Analog Cable TV Descramblng .pdf
Ha, knowing about this would have probably changed my life in more ways then one. I would have started my career as a hobby and saved a lot more time.
And God knows I would have been serious about learning this stuff as a teen if there was free porn at the end of it.
Its amazing I didn’t end up in jail. I built a few of the descramblers and worst of all ended up with a 300 baud modem when the local chevrolet place Threw out a bunch of ‘junk’. It was a non hayes bell modem and a pain in the ass to use but I would have taken a bullet for it. I built a blue box and later a black box. Then I got busy with free phone calls. Phreaking BBS’s all over with great plans on taking control of the world around you. I still remember the date that they replaced the old analog switch in my town.
I hear phreaking stories and I’m sad I was born a decade too late :(
I was kinda sad I was an adult when the hacking PBX’s were a thing in the 90’s. I kept up with that culture and those kids were having a great time taking over corporate phone systems and night and socializing. I still have a habit every now and then of picking up a random courtesy phone and finding the paging extension. I know it marks me as a huge nerd but I had a small handheld dtmf tone generator in my pocket everywhere I went up until I got married. I know a lot of default passwords used by systems. Most library PC’s and hotel business centers are depressingly easy to get into to. All due to a fear many tiny techs have of changing a default password.
Taking over corporate phone systems… what? Care to elaborate?
For a period of time in the 90’s you could get access to phone systems remotely. Kids and some adults were using them as hangouts of a sort and there was a lot of them that were used to jump into the net for free. I read about it more than experiencing it. Like I said I had grown up and it was no longer the draw it once was.
You think circuits are your friend? By the time I was old enough to convince my parents to buy me a soldering iron I was already a man.