A NEWBIES GUIDE TO PHREAKING IN THE '90s
volume I

I hate to do this part but as usuall...it's a must. Our Disclaimer: We in no way are responsible for any actions you take with the knowledge gained from this manual. It is intended for informational purposes only. Yadda, yadda yadda...just get to the manual.

When I started phreaking I noticed how out of date and complicated many of the phreaking texts i read were.  This is intended to be a new guide to phreaking in the '90s.  It will include several other things besides just how to phreak, alhthough many sections will be devoted to that topic from before the phreak, during the phreak, and after the phreak. This guide will also concentrate on phreaker ethics, and several other related issues.
	I. Explanation of what makes us do what we do and why we do it.
                 A.Intro           
            II. Before the phreak.
	     A. Tools
	     B. Location
          III. During the phreak
	     A. What to do and how to do it
	     B. Novices exercises
	     C.Dozens of other things to do with fones 
        IV. After the phreak
	     A. Clean up and other assorted misc.
         V. Conclusions

If you are anything like I was when I started to learn, you just got internet access right?  One of the first things you typed into your browser was hacking wasn't it?  So at night and when your parents were away you poured over hacking text files and web pages.  You understood less than half of what you read but it was interesting you wanted more of it.  It led you to other areas of the electronic black arts didn't it? You saw words you've never seen before, things like phreaking or warez or carding or virii.  You guessed at how to pronounce them, you guessed at what they ment.  Then you started finding out more about them. Phreaking turned out to be telephone hacking in a sense.  You read and read more and more about all of it.  You read about different things about phones that you never knew before, the mere posibillity of which made you tingle. This is all in the spirit of hacking and phreaking, learning and the intense desire to know more, to know how things work.  If you are anything like I was when I startd to learn, you wanted and needed an up to date, easy to understand text file.  Well here it is.

Phreaks have ethics, contrary to the belief of many a phone company.  You've probably seen and read several different versions of the phreaks ethics and the 10 commandments of the phone phreak and other files. They are all good and all say the same thing more or less and I'm not going to rewrite them here.  I have my own code of ethics, which is just a variation of the foundation rules set in place.  NEVER cause intentional damage to a phone or phone system.  If you insist on causing damage or it is unavoidable to attain your goal don't cause permenant or expensive damage.  This kind of damage is never neccessary and should be avoided at all costs.  As for the rest of the ethics it's up to you to decide how to procede, i can't force (nor would i try to) you to follow any code of ethics, however a phreak without ethics is just a jackass who knows something about phones.  I can garuntee you that if you don't have a code of ethics, you will be black balled from the phreaking/hacking community. 

What do you need in the way of tools?  For starters go to garage sales...find a phone that has the key pad on the reciever (the end of the phone you talk into and listen from).  Now get yourself some phone cord.  Cut off the modular plug (the phone jack. the little plastic thing the wires go into) on ONE end.  You will see 4 different colors of wires red, green, yellow, and black. For the most part the important ones are the green and the red.  Strip the casing from the four wires, now strip the insulation from the red and green wires...yellow and black too if you're bored.  Get yourself some aligator clips...I prefer the color coded/insulated kind.  Now attach the alligator clips to the wires..if you have color coded clips like I reccommend then put them on the corresponding color wire.  Plug the cord into the phone you got at the garage sale.  You now have the basic version of what is known as a beige box or a linemans handset.  This is a neccessary tool for any phreak.  Other tools I reccommend (as you progress in your training you'll figure out why) are: a 7/16 hex wrench, a phone cord stripping device (it's a bitch to strip those wires isn't it) wide assorment of phone connecters, and an assortment of small tools like pliers and wire clippers and screwdreivers.  These are the BASIC tools.  As you become more advanced you'll want more and more tools to build boxes (more on this later) and other things.  But for your first phreak you'll only need the beige box you've built and a screw driver.

First you need to find a secluded spot...this wasn't hard for me because I lived in a rural community, but it may be harder if you live in the city.  The spot you choose for your first phreak should have access to a phone box (I used the one on the side of a house).  If you're dealing with this kind of set up good, it's eaisier for the first phreak.  Where I was the boxes on the houses where grey or green.  As you become more advanced you'll move on to the big green or grey boxes you see along the road and other more complicated things.

Now that you have the right tools and the location for your first phreak you're ready.  This is how to proced.  Open the box by unscrewing the screw labled open.  Now you'll see a jumble of wires...no problem...find the red and green wires...if there is more than one set on these pick a set..any set.  Now look at where the wires are attached...they are attached to some screw terminals right? good.  Look at them closely see how the wire is stripped to fit around the terminal...see how the end of the wire is available to you. Attach your red aligator clip to the end of the red wire in the box...and the green to the green.  Listen to your phone..hear the dial tone...if not make sure your clips are making good contact and are not touching each other.  Now call a number...not your own house of course...and not a friend.  CONGRATULATIONS you've just completed your first phreak.  I know it wasn't much but it got you started didn't it.  

	Now disconnect from the box and close it up...just the way you found it.  If you haven't called any unusuall numbers like the 900 variety or the long distance kind the person you just phreaked off of will never know.  However if you need to make long distance calls or anything of the like you now know how to do it at no cost to you.  A word of caution is...don't always use the same house to phreak off of.

	This is the simplist form of phreaking.  But it gives you a base to build off of.  Think about the possibilities.  You could get longer cords and connect them permentaely to a neighbor's house and barry the cord so you have instant access to their phone...or set up a recording device and every time they have a phone conversation you will know exactly what goes on in their lives...trust me it gets old after awhile unless you have very interesting neighbors.  Pay phones offer dozens of opportunities to the phreak.  You can make free calls with the right tones, get coins back, or turn it into your personal bank, and any other number of things.  There are endless possibilities of things to do on phones.  read the other text files out there and you will find out what they are.  
	
	What the hell are boxes? I asked myself this question a lot.  Boxes are devices the phreaks build to do litterally hundereds of different things.  Boxes are identified by colors such as red and green and blue.  They all serve a different purpose.  Some boxes don't have anything to do with phreaking such as the chrome box...but they are usefull and provide great entertainment.  Over the course of your learning you will find out about the different colors of boxes and their functions.  Most boxes are easy and cheap to make and you'll learn to build them and use them effectively.

	This is the first in what we hope to be a series of texts for the newbie phreak in the '90s.  We hope you enjoyed this file and you read the next one to be released soon.  We would like to take this opportunity to welcome our newest writer Jester, we hope he can provide the underground with lots of great files. This has been another great file by Dial-Tone, and the rest of us here at ILS (Information Liberation Specialists).
