     =------------------------------------------------------------------=
     |Vol. 1 No. 2           Telephone Free Planet               Issue 2|
     |Made by foreigners!       tfp.nothing.org       Always overpriced!|
     |Dial 10-TFP and lose!    November 11, 1997    Happy Veterans' Day!|
     =------------------------------------------------------------------=
=-------------------------"Yo quiero TFP" -Chihuahua-------------------------=

          =--TFP02------------Table des Matieres------------TFP02--=
          | Zero to phreak in 5 minutes..................KungFuFox | 
          | The NorTel Millenium.......................mastermiind |
          | Evil phone tricks for smart monkeys............overdub |
          | Color coding of pairs and binders............KungFuFox |
          | What to do when your mom finds your beigebox...Dublisk |
          =----------TFP goodies for extra special phreaks---------=
          | Telco News...................................KungFuFox |
          | Storytime with TFP..........Whoever bothered to submit |
          =--------------------------------------------------------=
     
    "Attorney General Janet Reno announced this week that she will fine
    Microsoft $1 million per day for attempting to monopolize access to 
    the internet. This means that Microsoft CEO Bill Gates will go broke 
    just 10 years after the earth crashes into the sun." -Norm MacDonald
    
    "I'm sure it would be good if it was teaching me something." -Discore,
    commenting on TFP01
    
=----------------------------------------------------------------------------=
                 =-------------------------------------------=
                 | Telephone Free Planet - Contacts and crap | 
                 =-------------------------------------------=

               Alpha dog : KungFuFox, mazer@cycat.com <-send me hatemail!
                Beta dog : Keystroke, keystroke@thepentagon.com <-say hi!
               TFP Email : tfp@tfp.nothing.org <-send us stuff!
                TFP Site : tfp.nothing.org <-our real short new url
   Cult follower weirdos : digipimp, AlienPhreak, BC219, weatherman, 
                           REality, Scud-O, shoelace, Dublisk, ec|ipse, 
                           overdub, Allah7, and Discore [we got more!]

Submissions of articles, quotes, emails, logs, phone conversations, news 
articles, and general crap are encouraged. tfp@tfp.nothing.org needs you!

WARNING: This document is to be read for entertainment purposes only. TFP and
its writers will not be held liable for your actions. If you want to reprint 
any portion of this document, just email tfp@tfp.nothing.org and ask. 

=----------------------------------------------------------------------------=
           
Welcome to the second uninformative, lame, stupid, and useless issue of TFP! 
I'm KungFuFox, and I'll be your guide through yet another journey into 
phones. Hopefully you'll learn SOMETHING this time around, instead of just 
thinking "boy this sucks". 

If you didn't notice, we changed URLs, thanks to the help of our friends at 
nothing.org. That means our email also changed, so make a note of the new
address that we've subliminally inserted at various points in the issue. As 
was true in last issue, we still want you to work real hard and stay in 
school so you can write us material to save KFF from writing everything.

This issue is coming out just eleven days after TFP01, if you didn't notice. 
It's also over 20k smaller than the first issue. This is out of choice rather 
than necessity, since I'd much rather read something smaller and more often 
than larger and less often. About the eleven days thing, don't assume we're 
gonna make this mistake again. It could be months between issues, or maybe 
just a few hours. I don't know when TFP03 will be out. Hell, it might not 
ever come out. Just watch and see. Buncha anxious bastards. 

I've been put under some pressure by a few people to get better HTML and 
graphics for the site. Though I did major in HTML and graphics, I'm probably
not the best (ok, maybe I am) but just to see how things may turn out, I'm
sponsoring a cheesy HTML and graphics contest. Submissions of TFP themed
HTML and graphics created with the intent of replacing those on our site at
tfp.nothing.org will be accepted at tfp@tfp.nothing.org until TFP03 is 
released. The winner will be announced in that issue unless some horrible
accident prevents it, or TFP03 doesn't come out or something. The best
submission will be judged the winner. Get crackin'!

 ((__))
  (@@)  foNekOw sez...
 (o__o) "TFP sucks!"
    U
=----------------------------------------------------------------------------=
           =------------------------------------------------------=
           | Zero to phreak in 5 minutes - a satire, by KungFuFox | 
           =------------------------------------------------------=

Welcome to the wonderful world of phones! Do you wanna make phonecalls for
free?! Do you wanna have lotsa fun at the expense of somebody else?! Do you
wanna have a beigebox or a redbox, but don't even know what they are?! Read 
on k-rad kiddies! 

Lets start off with some basics, the kinda info you need to become a real
phreak like the big boys! You gotta learn how to get free phonecalls! I'll
tell you about a few simple tools and techniques, starting with the beigebox.
I know you don't know what that is, it doesn't matter, I'll tell you how it 
works! 

Basically you get a phone, and you plug it into somebody else's house instead 
of yours! Don't have a phone? No problem! My poor man's beigebox works just 
as well, and all you need to 'make' one is a rock! Either one from your home 
or from the location of your victim is fine. Get to the victim's place, 
preferrably at night, and find a window to a room you think has a good chance 
of having a phone in it. 

Chuck the rock at the window. Make sure you're not standing right next to the 
window when you do this, because it's liable to break, assuming you don't 
have two broken arms to throw rocks with. If you can find a neighborhood 
filled with deaf people, or a slum where people hear windows breaking 
regularly, this phreaking technique is much more likely to work.

Ok, now that the window is sufficiently removed, you need to get in there. 
Hopefully you picked a window that wasn't 10 feet off the ground. Climb on in 
there, making sure you don't peel the skin off your body, and look for a 
phone. Though you may be tempted, it isn't a good idea to turn on the lights
when you start looking for that phone, obviously because turning on the 
lights is a lot more suspicious than breaking a window. Now for the 
complicated part. 

Once you've located the phone, you have to use a special technique to use it, 
because ma bell designed phones so you can't beige box with them at normal
phone jacks. Rip the phone out of the wall, so that the plug on the end of 
the phone cord becomes separated from the cord. Bite off the plastic cover on 
the cord, and you'll see 2 or 4 wires inside it. You'll be dealing with the 
red and green wires. If the wires aren't colored, it's the middle two. Strip 
away a couple inches of the insulation from those two wires. Now your 
beigebox is prepared for use. The only thing left to do is find a place to 
beige from. 

If the building you used your geolocial key to get into has a basement, 
you'll probably wanna go down there and look around for a plastic box mounted 
on a wall. It'll probably have a phone company insignia on it, most likely a 
generic bell shaped drawing, and a name with the word "bell" in it. Other  
possible names are "uswest", "ameritech", "nynex", or "gte". If this plastic 
box thing isn't in the basement, look around outside for it. It'll be on an 
outside wall somewhere around building. 

Once you find it, bash it good with your beigebox until it breaks open. You 
can use your feet and hands if you like. You could even use the rock you 
removed that window with if you can find it. Just make sure you bash the 
cover off that plastic box. Hopefully after all this work you'll be greeted 
with some screws arranged in a strange geometric pattern. 

Hold the beigebox's handset up to your ear so you can hear it if it gets a 
dialtone, and start touching the two beigebox wires to different screws. 
After a few minutes if you don't have a dialtone, you're either retarded or 
the phoneline is disconnected. In the latter case, you'll need to goto 
another building, find another plastic box with a phone company insignia on 
it, and try the same procedure there. If you're just retarded, bash yourself 
in the head with the beigebox. It's probably angry at you anyway, for ripping 
it out of the wall. 

Another good way to make free phonecalls, and become an elite phreak, is to
redbox. Don't know what a redbox is either? No sweat! I'll tell you how to
get free calls just like a redbox does, but without the time consuming 
construction! 

First things first, you need to find a payphone. Any payphone will do, so 
long as it works. Don't believe any of the undercover telco people on irc 
that may tell you redboxes don't work. They do! Once you've found yourself a
payphone, you need to get some money to use it. Ha! I didn't mean your own
money! That wouldn't be free! My first technique is something I'll call 
begging.

To beg successfully, you'll need to look shabby. Don't shave if you're old 
enough that shaving matters, and don't comb your hair or whatever it is you
normally do to it. Also, wearing your worst clothes, slept in the night 
before your first redboxing day, is a good idea. Bring along a disposable 
cup; you can find one on the way if you need to, and go to that payphone. 
Now, when people walk by it, or walk up to use it, they're probably gonna 
have some change. Just sit there looking real pathetic and people are bound 
to start dropping as few coins as they can into your cup. Don't worry, even 
though they're cheapasses, eventually those small donations to your personal 
charity will add up. Once you've got like five bucks, you can start making 
calls, and they won't have cost you any money at all! 

My second technique, which is a much more effective method of obtaining 
funds, is something I like to call mugging. This will take some patience 
though, for you need to find the weakest person possible before attacking. 
Preferrably you should find somebody who weighs a lot less than you do. Once
you've found your anonymous donor, you may either knock them down, or simply
grab them. Weapons such as guns and knives are excellent when implimented
properly, to terrify your victim into submitting to your demands for money.
Once you've acquired the funds that you feel are necessary to support your
need to make free phonecalls, and become a better phreak, you may let them 
go, and get yourself to a phone, to start using that money.

Ok now that you've acquired a couple tricks of the trade, get your lazy ass
out there and phreak!

=----------------------------------------------------------------------------=
    =-------------------------------------------------------------------=
    | NorTel Millenium: The payphone for the next 1000 years - by miind |
    =-------------------------------------------------------------------=

Those NorTel Milleniums that are being bought in hordes by the RBOCs and put 
up everywhere are really a work of art. At first look, they might appear to 
be a bad idea in high vandalism areas, but they are actually very tough.
 
The bodies are built with 1/4" reinforced steel, and they employ a 2-way dual
locking system. First of all, the coin box and the logic box are locked 
seperately. Secondly, they use a 4-pin Medeco(tm) lock with a notched T-Bit
bolt.
 
The 4-Pin Medeco lock for the coin box is on the lower right side of the 
phone. This must be unlocked, before the T-Bit located on the front of the 
coin box can be turned to open the box.
 
The 4-Pin Medeco lock for the logic box is on the upper left side of the 
phone. As with the coin box lock, this must be unlocked before the T-Bit 
which is also located on the upper left side of the phone can be turned. Once 
this is done, the logic box opens from top to bottom. That is, the part of 
the phone that includes the card reader, handset, keypad, display, and RBOC 
logo, flips down. The hinge is located just under the card reader.
 
Oh, a little note about the Medeco locks. Only 4 pins, you say?!? Well you 
can almost forget about trying to pick them. Medeco locks are special, in 
that not only must the pins be raised a certain amount, but they must also be
rotated a certain amount. This rotation can be clockwise or anti-clockwise.
And also, both Medeco locks are keyed differently for security purposes.
 
How these phones operate is quite unusual. The days of ACTS and its variants
are gone. These new breed of phones operate on the COCOT principal. I 
sometimes call them BOCOTs. The phone itself is responsible for billing. Not
only for local calls, but for long distance and overseas calling as well.
 
When you pick up the handset on a Millenium and hear a "dial tone", it is not
really a dial tone you are hearing. It is mearly a fake dial tone that the
phone produces. After dialing your number, the phone then decides on what 
sort of call it is. Is it local, long distance, or overseas. If it is a local 
call, then a synthesized voice asks for the $0.25 and the display also 
prompts for the money. Once the money is in, the phone picks up the real line
that it is connected to, and then re-dials the number that you entered into 
its memory. The call then goes on as normal.
 
If it is a long distance call, the phone checks it's rate table for the 
current rate based on time of day, day of week, and mileage to destination 
CO. It then asks for the appropriate amount of money and continues as with a
local call. The same goes for an overseas call.
 
Now, stuff gets a little trickier if you plan to use a card to bill the call.
Milleniums are equipped with both a magnetic strip reader AND a smart card
reader. However, not all RBOCs have issued smart cards. Bell Canada 
(Ontario/Quebec) has for sure, but as for the others, I'm not sure. I do know 
that BC Tel doesn't have a smart card planned until mid '98, at the least.

Anyways, after you dial your number, you are asked to put in your money or
enter your card into the slot. If you opt to enter your card into the slot,
the phone reads in your card data. It then takes the real line that it 
is connected to off-hook and proceeds to call it's predetermined credit card
authorization center. After authorizing your card, it hangs up, then  
re-seizes the line and proceeds to dial the number that you have entered into
its memory.
 
A word about authorization. In Canada, where Stentor owns DataPac AND the 
RBOCs, it is possible to use real-time credit card authorization even for a
$0.25 call. That means that your card better be valid, or it will fail 
authorization. However, in the USA, where de-regulation has been widespread,
an authorization costs about $0.50 for the use of a public switched network
such as telenet. It doesn't make sense to spend this much money to 
authorize a call that is only going to cost the customer an average of 
$2.30 for the first minute, and about $0.60 for each additional minute.
 
At least that is the way the RBOCs in the USA think. Because of this, credit 
card authorization is not in real time. Therefore, if you have a magnetic 
strip writer, you could write a valid Visa number to an old strip, and use it 
in a phone to call anywhere in the world for free, and without the annoying 
prompt for more money every minute. I have tried this in Seattle (USWest) on 
one of their Milleniums and it worked fine. However, in Canada, it won't 
work. The card number that you write to the card MUST be a REAL ISSUED 
number. Of course, these aren't TOO hard to come by, now are they?
 
There are lots of more things to be learned about these new Milleniums for
me and the rest of us, so get hacking! These are THE phones that will take us 
into the next millenium. There are things to be done with the keypad, but I 
don't know enough to write about that at the present time.

A note about boxing Milleniums:

Well, they come in a box. The box says "Millenium, The Power Within". The box 
also has a few other markings like the serial number and warranty date and 
the like, but other than that, it's just a plain old cardboard box.

As far as "boxing" a Millenium, Red Boxes are out because ACTS isn't used.
Magenta Box is out, because the microphone isn't being muted to deter Red
Boxing. White Box is out because when you initially dial the number on the
keypad, it is NOT the DTMF tones that are being stored, but rather the actual
keystrokes. Playing DTMF tones via a White Box into the mic to dial a number
won't work because the phone isn't listening to the tones, just waiting for
electrical pulses from the keypad. A buttset (Beige Box, if you REALLY want
to call it a "box") will work if you can find the pair either in a SAC, or
from the drop above or below the phone, but hey, that works on ALL payphones.
I can't really think of any other conventional "colour boxes" that would be
any use on a Millenium though.

=----------------------------------------------------------------------------=
 =-------------------------------------------------------------------------=
 | Evil no-brainer phone tricks for phreaks and smart monkeys - by overdub |
 =-------------------------------------------------------------------------=

Direct Dial Cab Phones
---------------------

Have you ever been to the mall and seen those phones that you pick up and
they automatically forward you to the local cab company? If so, you're in 
luck. This means free calls at your sleazy local cab company's expense... 
Payback time for when they took you the long way home to charge you extra. 

You need:

tone dialer
buddy (just easier)

Steps:

1: Go to the cab phone.
2: Now get your buddy to slip his finger on the button behind the receiver so
   when you lift it, it'll still be hung up.
3: Whip out your trusty rat shak tone dialer and hold down the first digit 
   and get your buddy to let go of the button. The tone should be in before 
   the phone has even thought about dialing the cab place.
4: Just dial the rest of the pone number as you would like and you should be
   connected courtesy of your sleazy local cab co.

Note: Use your buddy for lookout in case one of those lame security guards
      comes after you ;]

Phone Jack Fun
-----------------

Do you ever get pissed at your parents or anyone else who has a phone jack or
box you have access to? It doesn't really matter if you already have access,
since it's not too hard to get access. Just look around your victim's 
dwelling until you find their TNI box. If you can't find it outside, you 
might have to do one of those new fangled home invasions it cuz it'll be in 
their basement. Once you DO have access, you can use the info below to mess 
up your victim's lives pretty bad.

Phone Jack Fun:

1: Locate phone jack.
2: Rip the faceplate/cover off the jack.
2: Rip out all the wires.
3: Put the faceplate/cover back where it was.
4: Now no one will be able to call in on or out on that line.
(If you can't do this one, I don't know how you learned to read) (stupid.)

If you're a pacifist or you don't like ripping wires out of stuff you can try
a less physically demanding evil scheme called...

Making their phone bill real high n stuff:

1: Get phone.
2: Plug phone into victim's line.
3: Call $25 900 BBS access number, wait 15 seconds, and hang up.
4: Call it back 100 times.
5: Go get a soda.
6: Call it back 900 more times. (Yeah, it's gonna take you about 4 hours to
do this, but it's gonna cost your friendy friend $25000, right mathboy?)
7: Call a buncha plummers, painters, and service people and tell 'em to come 
to your victim's house. 
8: Call every local service you can think of, along with every magazine, 
newspaper, and mail order product company in your phonebook, and order stuff.
9: Call back the service/delivery type numbers and tell 'em you won't be home 
but to do whatever you ordered them to do when they get there. Saying you're 
not going to be home means "please, rob us" to the real sly businessman 
types. 
10: Run far far away.

=----------------------------------------------------------------------------=      
 =--------------------------------------------------------------------------=
 | Color coding of pairs and binders - one more crappy article by KungFuFox |
 =--------------------------------------------------------------------------=
              
The most common telephone connection requires only 2 wires, known as a 
"pair". One of these wires is known as the ring, and is most commonly red. 
The other wire is known as the tip, and is most commonly green. They should
be familiar to you, since you beige with them. These wires enter your home
through what is known as a station cable, consisting of 2 pairs of wires,
one pair being red/green, the other black/yellow. The red and yellow wires
are known as 'ring' wires, and the green and black ones known as 'tip' wires.

The station cable connects your home to what is known as a binding post. In 
layman's terms, its a greenish or greyish metal box somewhere in your yard
that either has a sticker that says "call before you dig" on it, or it'll be
near a telephone pole (the big wooden thing you tie your dog to). This 
binding post in turn is connected to what is known as a binder cable. The  
binder cable is buried underground in areas with "call before you dig" signs 
on the binding posts. In areas with telephone poles, this cable is usually 
located closer to the ground on the pole than any of the other cables.

The binder cable contains up to 25 pairs of wire, 1 pair equalling 1 line. 
Your line(s) split from this cable at the binding post, and within this post
are access terminals. The ring (red wire) is usually located on the right
terminal. An easy way to remember this is with the "three r's" rule: red 
right ring. Thusly, the tip (green wire) is connected to the left terminal. 
You may access these terminals with a beigebox and will recieve the same 
connection to the phone network as you would from within the house that the 
line belongs to, and hence gain ability to prank a certain President with 
little regard for possible repercussions.

The wire pairs within the binder cable are color coded with 10 different 
colors in a specific pattern of combinations so that they may be identified 
by linemen without the hassle of uprooting your neighborhood to trace the 
cable all the way to the house it goes to. Below is a description of the 
colors, and a table showing what colors represent which pair and group number 
within the binder.

Primary colors:
blue [BLU], orange [ORG], green [GRN], brown [BRN], and slate [SLT] (gray)

Secondary colors: 
white [WHT], red [RED], black [BLK], yellow [YEL], and violet [VLT] (purple)

Tip (T) is mostly secondary color with marks of primary color (ex: WHT/BLU)
Ring (R) is mostly primary color with marks of secondary color (ex: BLU/WHT)

Pairs are listed by group number at the left of the chart and by pair number 
directly to the left of the color coding. These pairs are marked in groups of 
5. Each pair within each group uses a different primary color and each group 
uses a different secondary color. 

To aid in your deciphering, I'll provide an explanation with some examples. 

"Grp1" signifies that the information to the right of it is for pairs in 
group 1. 
"T" is short for "tip".
"R" is short for "ring". 
"#01" identifies the color code to the right of it as belonging to pair 1. 
"WHT/ORG" means the wire in question is colored mostly with white but has 
orange marks. 
"BLU/WHT" means the wire in question is colored mostly with blue but has 
white marks.

-----------------------------------------------------------------------------
Grp1 T: #01 WHT/BLU | #02 WHT/ORG | #03 WHT/GRN | #04 WHT/BRN | #05 WHT/SLT |
Grp1 R: #01 BLU/WHT | #02 ORG/WHT | #03 GRN/WHT | #04 BRN/WHT | #05 SLT/WHT |
-----------------------------------------------------------------------------
Grp2 T: #06 RED/BLU | #07 RED/ORG | #08 RED/GRN | #09 RED/BRN | #10 RED/SLT |
Grp2 R: #06 BLU/RED | #07 ORG/RED | #08 GRN/RED | #09 BRN/RED | #10 SLT/RED |
-----------------------------------------------------------------------------
Grp3 T: #11 BLK/BLU | #12 BLK/ORG | #13 BLK/GRN | #14 BLK/BRN | #15 BLK/SLT |
Grp3 R: #11 BLU/BLK | #12 ORG/BLK | #13 GRN/BLK | #14 BRN/BLK | #15 SLT/BLK |
-----------------------------------------------------------------------------
Grp4 T: #16 YEL/BLU | #17 YEL/ORG | #18 YEL/GRN | #19 YEL/BRN | #20 YEL/SLT |
Grp4 R: #16 BLU/YEL | #17 ORG/YEL | #18 GRN/YEL | #19 BRN/YEL | #20 SLT/YEL |
-----------------------------------------------------------------------------
Grp5 T: #21 VLT/BLU | #22 VLT/ORG | #23 VLT/GRN | #24 VLT/BRN | #25 VLT/SLT |
Grp5 R: #21 BLU/VLT | #22 ORG/VLT | #23 GRN/VLT | #24 BRN/VLT | #25 SLT/VLT |
-----------------------------------------------------------------------------

A binder cable is most likely the largest cable you will find in a 
residential area. If you should inadvertantly slice through one of these with
a hunting knife after accidentally digging a six foot hole directly above it,
the above chart will be very handy in identifying exactly which 2 wires 
belong to which pair number in the binder cable. Once you have located 2 
wires of the same color but in a different color pattern, such as a VLT/GRN 
and a GRN/VLT pair, you may splice and access this line with a test set, 
lineman's handset, beige box, or whatever you want to call it.

Special thanks to phoneman and his url at
www.geocities.com/siliconvalley/pines/4116/ 
for providing the bulk of the information contained in this article. 

=----------------------------------------------------------------------------=
        =-----------------------------------------------------------=
        | What to do when your mom finds your beigebox - by Dublisk |
        =-----------------------------------------------------------=

A phreaker's nightmare is when their lineman's handset or beige box is taken 
away from them, or found. If it's by the FBI or the police you might have a 
chance to reason with them or at least settle something, but with moms there 
just is no hope. So what do you do when your mom finds that beige box hiding 
somewhere deep within your closet? Pray and keep mental notes of the 
following.

You have to be ready to think of an excuse or explanation of what the thing 
is that she finds. Remember, stay cool and calm when lying to parents or 
anyone, as they seem to have the knack of being able to catch a lie as easy 
as 3.141592654. If you believe the lie to be true, then it is true. Don't 
ever smile or grin the slightest bit. You should try to seem a bit confused 
about the questions they are asking you, pretend to be a little stupid and 
don't be sure what they mean. This sort of thing can also help your social 
engineering skills as you have to be as believable as possible. Ok, I am 
going to insert some dialogue to show you some examples of what to do when 
your mom finds your beige box. 

SITUATION #1:
<mom> What the hell is this phone and phone cords doing in this napsack? And 
why the hell is the end cut off with alligator clips on it?
<phreak> Uhhhhhhhhhh nothing.
<mom> What do you mean nothing?
<phreak> I mean nothing by saying nothing?
<mom> What?
<phreak> What? What are you talking about??? What the hell are you doing with 
a phone like that mom anyway huh???? Trying to tap into people phone lines or
something??? you should be ashamed!!!!
<mom> But wait a second here......

ANALYSIS:
By confusing the mother, the phreak was able to get away with it and turn 
around the situation on the mom.

SITUATION #2:

<mom> What the hell is this phone and phone cords doing in this napsack? And 
why the hell is the end cut off with alligator clips on it?
<phreak> What? what are you talking about?
<mom> This!! What the hell is this??
<phreak> Oh that, yeah I was just trying out something with that.
<mom> What exactly were you doing with it?
<phreak> Oh I was just trying out an experiment that I read about in a 
communications technology book that I found at school. You hook up those 
alligator clips to the ends of a latern battery and by changing the voltage 
and stuff you can make the phone ring and the light go on and things like 
that.
<mom> Oh yeah right, then why the hell is there a flashlight, screwdrivers,
and wrenches in here too?
<phreak> Yeah I had to pop open the bottom of the phone to do some stuff with 
the phone to get it to work properly.
<mom> Yeah right, you better not be going out messing with people's phone 
lines.
<phreak> Now why would I want to do that? What could I do anyway?
<mom> I don't know, but I better not find out you were getting into trouble.
<phreak> Trust me, jesus christ, I am not crazy.
<mom> I just don't trust you, I am going to take this thing away where you 
will never get it again.

ANALYSIS:
Ok, except for the fact that he gets the box taken away, the phreak seems to 
have gotten away with it this time with some quick thinking, and note how the 
phreak asks the mom how he could do anything with that. Considering the mom 
doesn't know much about telephone networks she gets confused and assumes the 
phreak is telling the truth and couldn't have done anything bad.

SITUATION #3:
<mom> Hey, what the hell are these alligator clips doing at the end of this
phone?
<phreak> That's a beige box you techno-weinie, now leave me alone before I 
destroy you with my evil haxor powers!!! muahahhahaha!
<mom> AAAIIIIIIIEEEEEEEEE!!!!!!!!!!   *Runs outside in terror*

ANALYSIS:
Quick, easy, painless, and works the best! Now what have you learned today? 
Never underestimate the power of the haxor.

After reading that you should have a good understanding of what to do when 
your mom finds yer beigebox. As for finding credit card numbers,
weeeeeeellllll thats another story. Till next time.

-Dublisk

=----------------------------------------------------------------------------=  
               =---------------------------------------------=
               | Telco News - compiled & edited by KungFuFox |
               =---------------------------------------------=

1: Microsoft trying to take over the world! ($1 billion US West investment)
2: Citibank takes smart card to cleaners
3: FTC gives web suckers an even break
4: Bell Canada and NorTel agree to upgrade Bell Canada's DMS network
5: Bellsouth complains to congrees for not getting favors
6: AT&T Simplifies (charges more on) Basic Long Distance Rate Schedule

     "All the 2600 meets in Dallas are old phat guys who just tell us 
     stories of what they've done. Don't get me wrong, some of the shit 
     they done is reet but damn do they smell like shit." -Bishop

=-----------------------------------------------------------= 
 
 Microsoft bargaining for cable operations $1 billion investment in US West 
 expected
 November 5, 1997

 SAN FRANCISCO -- Microsoft Corp. is close to an agreement to invest up to $1 
 billion in the cable television operations of US West, according to several 
 people involved in the negotiations.

The investment would buy Microsoft as much as 6.3 percent of US West's cable 
business at the current stock price. More important, it would further the 
software giant's strategy of turning the nation's cable systems into the 
primary providers of high-speed access to the Internet -- with Microsoft 
hoping to control the television set-top box software people would use to get 
online.

In June, in a similar deal, Microsoft agreed to pay $1 billion for an 11.5 
percent stake in another big cable company, Comcast Corp.

Word of the US West negotiations, which the two sides hope to conclude by 
early next month, comes just weeks after Microsoft was reported to be close 
to such a deal with cable company Tele-Communications Inc. But those talks 
have apparently been tabled, executives close to the situation said.

Microsoft was said to be concerned about TCI's 39.5 percent stake in a 
potential Internet access competitor, @Home Corp. of Redwood City. @Home, 
moreover, employs the World Wide Web browser software of Microsoft's Internet 
software rival, Netscape Communications Corp. of Mountain View.

Executives at Microsoft, US West and TCI all refused to comment. But 
Microsoft's chairman, Bill Gates, is known to have been pressing the cable 
industry to make the large investments in the digital technology and set-top 
boxes necessary for updating their high-capacity networks for widespread 
Internet use.

Direct investments in cable companies by Microsoft are meant not only to 
provide some of the financing for such work but also to give the cable 
industry confidence that money spent on Internet technology will pay off in 
the future. Already, Microsoft's investment in Comcast has improved the cable 
industry's status with Wall Street, helping drive up the stock prices of many 
cable companies.

For its own part, Microsoft sees cable access to the Net as a way for the 
company to potentially gain the same software dominance over millions of 
set-top boxes as it currently wields over millions of personal computers. The 
company also sees high-speed cable networks as a way to build on Microsoft's 
current Internet businesses, which include providing information, 
entertainment and commercial transactions via its MSN online network.

Microsoft has already developed Windows CE, a consumer-electronics version of 
its Windows 95 software operating system for PCs, which the company is 
expected to promote as a standard for a new generation of cable set-top 
boxes. As part of its move into TV-based Internet access, Microsoft spent 
$425 million earlier this year to acquire WebTV Networks Inc. of Palo Alto, 
an Internet service provider, and Microsoft is said to be working on ways to 
blend WebTV's set-top technology with the Windows CE operating system.

The people involved in the Microsoft-US West talks said the negotiations were 
moving quickly and that Microsoft hoped to announce a deal before the Western 
Cable Convention, a major industry trade show scheduled for early December.

Teaming with Microsoft would be the sort of new opportunity that US West, a 
regional Bell telephone company, was thought to be seeking when it announced 
late last month that it would split off its cable business into a new 
corporation, the Media One Group. Media One, with 5.1 million households, 
would be the nation's third-largest cable system operator.

The bulk of US West's cable subscribers were acquired last year when the 
company bought Continental Cablevision, a Boston-based cable operator that 
had been actively developing Internet services for its customers around the 
country.

US West is also a major shareholder in Time Warner Inc. and an active partner 
in management of its cable systems -- an arrangement that would give 
Microsoft a foothold in Time Warner's growing cable empire. After some 
pending acquisitions, Time Warner will surpass TCI to become the industry 
leader, serving 13 million households.

Microsoft's push into cable is causing alarm among its competitors, who fear 
that the software giant is intent on translating its dominance of the PC 
world into a similar position in digital television and the Internet. Such 
fears helped scuttle a previous campaign by Microsoft to make inroads into 
the cable industry.

Several years ago, before the ascent of the Internet, Microsoft, TCI and Time 
Warner came close to forming a corporation, Cablesoft, that was to have 
developed software for the interactive cable systems then considered the wave 
of the future. That alliance failed to materialize, however, because the 
cable companies worried that Microsoft would become too powerful a partner.

Microsoft subsequently turned its attention to the Internet, with an evolving 
strategy that has lately begun to place much less emphasis on providing 
information and entertainment content through news services and online 
magazines. Instead, Microsoft is now focusing on conducting commercial 
transactions over the Net through efforts like its Expedia travel service, 
its Carpoint auto sales business and its Sidewalk city guide, which includes 
ticketing and reservation services.

Microsoft realizes that such ventures can become successful mass-market 
consumer businesses only if they are able to reach the tens of millions of 
households subscribing to cable television -- instead of the far fewer number 
now connected to the Internet through PC modems and conventional telephone 
lines. 

(c)San Jose Mercury News

[I don't wanna cause a panic or anything but LOOK OUT YOUR WINDOW! BILLY G! 
HE'S RIGHT THERE(!&)#&!)#*!)#*!]

=-----------------------------------------------------------= 

 Citibank Takes Smart Card To Cleaners 
 11/03/97
 By Mo Krochmal, TechWeb          
 
 NEW YORK -- Citibank has distributed 25,000 smart cards -- credit card-sized 
 devices that store a cash substitute on an embedded chip -- in what it calls 
 the largest U.S. test yet of smart card technology. 

The bank said it expects to roll out a device in the next 60 days that will 
let customers use these smart cards instead of quarters to feed washing 
machines in New York City laundromats. 

"That will be such a win in a city like New York where most people use 
quarters at a washing machine and dryer," said Judith Darr, a vice president 
at Citibank who directs her bank's part of the test. Citibank is using the 
Visa Cash product, while Chase Manhattan is distributing Mondex, a MasterCard 
International product, in a collaborative six-month test being conducted on 
the Upper West Side of the city. 

At the Global Smart Card Advisory Service Conference in New York Monday, Darr 
said getting New Yorkers to use the cards for small purchases is not as 
simple as just handing cards to customers and readers to merchants. 

"We have a lot of work to get this momentum building," she said. 

Last week, Citibank finished distributing the cards, which look like an ATM 
card embedded with a gold-colored microprocessor, to its customers. Darr said 
700 of 1,300 merchants in the area have signed on to test the product, 
including a lot of small cash-only businesses such as news stands, bodegas, 
and bakeries as well as larger outlets such as Burger Kings and drug stores. 

To back up the effort, the banks are marketing the product with direct mail 
reminders, telemarketing, billboards, and signs. In addition, bank employees 
are handing out some cards loaded with small amounts of currency in what Darr 
called "in their face" marketing. 

"We are really having to build the transactions quite quickly," Darr said. 
"We think that will help jump-start the program." 

Darr said the bank will soon introduce a Veriphone ATM terminal that will let 
customers load the product at home over the phone lines and will have, just 
in time for Christmas, a pre-loaded, reloadable card -- perfect for a 
stocking stuffer. 

And, with the introduction of the laundry device, it will be a clean 
stocking, no doubt. 

(c)CMP Media, 1997.

=-----------------------------------------------------------= 

 FTC Gives Web Suckers an Even Break
 by Wired News Staff 

 4.Nov.97 -- The great Moldovan porn fraud: The Federal Trade Commission said 
 today that 38,000 consumers who were caught up in a Web scam in which they 
 were bilked of US$2.47 million in long-distance phone charges will get full 
 credit for the money they lost. 

The scheme publicized in February involved several sites that invited 
visitors to download "viewing software" in order to receive free pornographic 
pictures. The downloaded software was equipped to do something that went 
unnoticed by most users: it turned off their modem speakers, dropped users' 
local phone connections to their ISPs, then redialed phone numbers assigned 
to Moldova to re-establish a connection to the porn sites. 

Defendants included Internet Girls and Audiotex Connection Inc., both of 
Rockville Center, New York; Promo Line Inc., of Dix Hills, New York; William 
Gannon, one of the principals in Internet Girls, Audiotex, and Promo Line; 
and David Zeng, a computer programmer who worked on the scam. 

Under an FTC settlement, the defendants will pay AT&T and MCI, which will in 
turn issue credits to consumers victimized in the scheme. 

---

MS annihilation warning: Orrin Hatch says Microsoft is trying to dominate the 
Internet. "Microsoft now has the ability to virtually annihilate any 
competitive product it wants by bringing it into the next version of 
Windows," the chairman of the US Senate Judiciary Committee told The Wall 
Street Journal. "There's evidence that they are aggressively seeking to 
extend that monopoly to the Internet, and policy-makers have to be concerned 
about it." 

The Utah Republican's committee is scheduled to hold a hearing on Internet 
commerce Tuesday. Hatch's comments come soon after the Justice Department 
charged Microsoft with violating a 1994 consent degree that placed guidelines 
on the company's marketing of its Windows operating system. (3.Nov.97)  

(c)1993-97 Wired Ventures, Inc.

=-----------------------------------------------------------= 

 Bell Canada And Nortel (Northern Telecom) Sign Agreement To Upgrade Bell's 
 DMS Switching Network    
 November 5, 1997

 BRAMPTON, Ont., /PRNewswire/ - Nortel (Northern Telecom) is pleased to 
 announce a two-year contract with Bell Canada for $US 82 million dollars to 
 provide network software and hardware upgrades. These upgrades will impact 
 every DMS-100, DMS-200, DMS-TOPS and DMS-STP switch in the Bell Canada 
 network. This contract is the next step in a modernization program by Bell 
 Canada in providing readiness to deploy enhanced and future services on a 
 network-wide basis. 

"We consider Nortel equipment to be consistently the most reliable in the 
world. This upgrade will be a strategic advantage for our network and will 
make Bell an even more competitive player," said Dave Southwell, Chief 
Technology Officer of Bell Canada. "These upgrades will not only lead to 
lower operational costs through network simplification, but will increase our 
ability to launch new services and features anywhere in our served 
territories to the benefit of our customers."

With four of Canada's largest cities located in this network -- Ottawa, 
Canada's capital and Toronto, Ontario; and Montreal and Quebec City, Quebec 
-- this upgrade will benefit Bell Canada subscribers who use over 10 million 
access lines. 

The implementatiuon will be in two phases: first, the entire network will 
reach a minimum software level of NA005 by the end of 1997; this will be 
followed by an upgrade to NA008 bye the end of 1998. The upgrades include DMS 
SuperNode 50s with mixed memory, and DMS SuperNode 60s and 70s, which are 
among the most advanced Nortel processors available. 

Bell Canada, the largest Canadian telecommunications operating company, 
markets a full range of state-of-the-art products and services to more than 
seven million business and residence customers in Ontario and Quebec. Bell 
Canada is a member of Stentor, an alliance of Canada's major 
telecommunications companies. 

(c)PR Newswire. All rights reserved. 

=-----------------------------------------------------------= 

 BellSouth Asks Congress To Aggressively Oversee Implementation of 1996 
 Telecom Act    
 November 5, 1997

 WASHINGTON, /PRNewswire/ -- BellSouth (NYSE: BLS), today called on Congress 
 to aggressively assert its oversight jurisdiction to ensure straightforward 
 and common sense implementation of the Telecommunications Act of 1996. 

In testimony before a House Judiciary Committee oversight hearing on the 
activities of the federal government's antitrust enforcement activities, 
BellSouth Vice President Mark Feidler pointed out that BellSouth already has 
gone to extraordinary lengths to help competitors get into local telephony. 

BellSouth has provided telecommunications services that have let competitors 
take more than 215,000 customer lines formerly serviced by BellSouth, Feidler 
said. That volume is growing at 25 percent a month, a rate comparable to the 
growth of customers on the Internet, he added. 

However, rather than encouraging competition, Feidler concluded the Justice 
Department is involved in creating "endless process -- all aimed, apparently, 
at preventing long-distance competition, not promoting it." 

Feidler charged the Department with usurping the role of state public service 
commissions. "Instead of adhering to the Act, which gave most of the 
responsibility for dealing with local market issues to the state regulators, 
the FCC and the Justice Department have continually expanded their scope of 
authority and given little or no deference to the findings of state 
regulators," Feidler told the committee. 

On Tuesday, the Justice Department recommended to the Federal Communications 
Commission that it reject BellSouth's application to offer long-distance 
service to its South Carolina customers. 

The Telecom Act of 1996 set standards for Bell companies to meet before being 
allowed into long-distance, in July, the South Carolina Public Service 
Commission affirmed by a 7-0 vote that BellSouth had met those conditions. 

The Department of Justice has strayed beyond its area of expertise, Feidler 
told the committee. He noted that Congress had given Justice a role in making 
recommendations about the antitrust aspects of Bell applications to enter the 
long-distance marketplace. Instead, he noted, "the Department has adopted a 
new standard, not based on any antitrust precedent, that calls for the local 
market to be 'irreversibly open to competition.'" 

In calling for Congress to step in and oversee the Act's implementation, 
Feidler said the Justice Department has stepped beyond its technical 
expertise, "In practice the Department has applied the standard to second 
guess the state public service commissions on matters within their sole 
jurisdiction, such as checklist compliance." 

BellSouth is a $19 billion communications services company. It provides 
telecommunications, wireless communications, directory advertising and 
publishing, video, Internet and information services to more than 28 million 
customers in 20 countries worldwide. 

(c)PR Newswire.

=-----------------------------------------------------------= 

AT&T Simplifies Basic Long Distance Rate Schedule

NEW YORK--(BUSINESS WIRE)--Nov. 4, 1997--In response to customer calls 
for simplicity and the success of its One Rate calling plan, AT&T today 
announced several changes to its basic interstate schedule for 
residential direct-dialed calls. 

The company will replace its domestic basic schedule's day, evening and 
night/weekend time periods with peak, off-peak and weekend time periods 
and will eliminate all mileage bands. Calls will be priced at a single 
rate during each time period, regardless of distance. 

The new time periods are as follows: 

      Peak    7 a.m. - 6:59 p.m. Monday - Friday
   Off-Peak   7 p.m. - 6:59 a.m. Monday - Friday
    Weekend   All day Saturday and Sunday

Rates for the peak, off-peak and weekend time periods are 28 cents, 16 
cents and 13 cents per minute, respectively. 

With the elimination of mileage bands and changes in time periods, many 
customers will see lower prices, depending on when they make their 
calls. For example, calls placed Sunday evening will be priced up to 25 
percent lower than the current rate. 

The price changes become effective on Nov. 8, 1997, and do not affect 
AT&T customers who are enrolled in a calling plan. These changes apply 
only to AT&T's basic interstate residential direct-dialed rates, and do 
not affect the company's in-state calling plans. 

["Rate simplificiation" must be an expensive program to impliment, seeing as
this plan will cost consumers much more than before. There are a lot more 
(39 more) hours of peak/off peak rates (per week) now than before, which 
means there are 39 fewer night/weekend hours per week. That "elimination of
mileage bands" happened in the 80s, which makes it odd they should mention it
now. My advice would be to fear rate simplification.]

=----------------------------------------------------------------------------= 
                 =-------------------------------------------= 
                 |            Storytime with TFP             |
                 | By whoever bothered to submit (EviLSaNtA) |
                 =-------------------------------------------= 

Consequences of borrowing
-------------------------

One summer day, me and my friend were thinking of some thing to do. I saw all
of these trucks and vans in a parking lot, and I said to my friend "hey, 
wanna go in there?", he said "sure". So we thought up stuff to steal and then 
jumped the fence and started going through the vans and trucks but our main 
purpose was to steal CBs and stuff, so we took a CB from a big van, and some 
other worthless shit, and just as we were about to leave my friend found a 
lineman's handset. He gave it to me, since he had no idea how to use the damn 
thing, but after awhile we started using it on cans and stuff, had a lotta 
fun with it...

A few months (THREE months) later, we got caught. It turned out that some 
kids ratted us out for money (one of them was Danny Gibs, so if you live in 
Florida, and know him, please beat him down). So anyway it turned out that 
Lucent got robbed eight other times (by someone else) and we were one of the 
eight that got caught. They gave me an option: I could take this stupid 
program (JASP) or just goto JDC. So I took the JASP thing. I got 40 Hours of 
community service, had to take 2 of these "crime doesn't pay" classes, and 
they made me mow my lawn 3 times, don't ask me why. I'm also gonna have pay 
for the 'lost' fone, but in the end, I still had the handset. I just told the 
cops that I lost it. I'm not sure how much I gotta pay them; they haven't 
told me yet. 

PS - If you ever rob GTE or Lucent or any thing like that, please rember to 
wear gloves!!!

=----------------------------------------------------------------------------=
Dark|||Knight sent us this ANAC#: (903) 970-xxxx (Sherman, TX). See, we 
weren't kidding when we said we'd accept anything! TFP02 didn't have a mail 
or logs section because we didn't get any mail or logs that were printworthy.
Yeah, so we do have standards afterall. Fabricate some hatemail or logs of 
you pranking the President. Please. That wraps it up for the anticlimactic 
issue two of TFP. Au revoir! Support America's Veterans! Just say no to TFP!
=----------------------------------------------------------------------------=
