# 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
bbox | 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
blue6 | 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_art.txt | 13258 | The Art and Practice of Blue Boxing
blue_sec.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
blueti99 | 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.