Talk:Blue box/Archive 1

Archive 1

Cleaned up?

I think I fixed most of the issues brought up here. I verified most of my work with some of the parties mentioned. Feel free to correct as required. - Black Ratchet 7 July 2005 02:45 (UTC)

The Blue Box was not a device that only played a 2600 Hz tone it was also designed to play MF tones which were used on long lines to switch calls. The article about phreaking is incorrect too, the 2600 tone was only the first step in making free telephone calls. I'm going to try and clear this up... Alex756

Telephone number format

I'm not sure about the context of this information, but it is no longer accurate, nor has it been since 1995 [1]

NORMAL FORMAT FOR TELEPHONE NUMBERS: NYN/NNX-XXXX.  
WHERE N=ANY DIGIT EXCEPT 1 AND 0; Y=0 OR 1, AND X=ANY DIGIT.

The second digit need not be 1 or zero. Nor does the third digit exclude 0 or 1. I think that the format is NXX/NNX-XXXX. --Timc 02:52, 21 Jun 2004 (UTC)

The context is related to the use of the blue box, and when the blue box still worked, the format was accurate. Also, the current format is NXX/NXX-XXXX where NXX cannot be X11. The defination is very loose now. Also, it is theoretically possible to assign numbers like 211-7545 using 10-digit dialing, so that the sequence for 211 would be 211, and for 211-7545, 4082117545 (in area code 408, of course). Also, it is not possible to assign the area codes N11 (but N1X and NX1 are possible). Falcon 18:44, 26 Jun 2004 (UTC)

Why does Clear Box Redirect here?

http://en.wikipedia.org/w/wiki.phtml?title=Clear_box&redirect=no

Box Plans

since this boxing technique no longer works, why not include plans on how they were made hystorically? Alkivar 05:46, 21 Nov 2004 (UTC)

There are numerous plans on how to construct a blue box, they were preety much custom made boxes no two were alike. Plus it is STILL possible to blue box into remote northern switches in Alaska and Canada, though you can only sieze trunk lines and not dial out. —Preceding unsigned comment added by 80.156.42.129 (talk) 13:02, 7 January 2008 (UTC)

MF Tone Table

Are the tones and corresponding numbers/letters correct? I've seen others that have 0 instead of 10, and no KP2, and the R1 standard has ST2 and I think also ST3. Can someone who knows the correct numbers and frequencies clear this up?

Inaccurate and messy

The first problem is that the article doesn't clearly state what blueboxing did - it launches into specifics far too quickly.

Second thing - it's full of urban myth and hearsay, yet this is mixed in with the hard technical information. For example:

"Often if the phreaks were caught they would be offered jobs working for Ma Bell rather than spending time in a federal prison as the phreaks often knew more about how the long lines worked than the engineers who built them."

This never happened.

The whole thing about pink noise was perpetuated by several text files. It never worked.

I'll get round to editing it later.

Software blueboxes

What about adding some info about the software blueboxes like Scavenger Dial, Blue Dial and BlueBeep! ? I can provide some screenshots! --Pinnecco 10:16, 20 June 2006 (UTC)

Spiro

I notice that the Phreaking boxes category also links to an article, Spiro_(device), that is nearly completely redundant with this one. Who's for merging it in? Dethme0w 03:06, 13 February 2007 (UTC)

Spiro Box

I have NEVER seen a blue box referred to as a "Spiro" or any variant. I have been active in the phreak scene since the early 70's. The "Spiro" section duplicates information elsewhere in the article. The Spiro section also refers to MF or multi-frequency tones as "Touch-Tones". This is completely incorrect. "Touch-Tone" was the Bell trademark name for DTMF or "Dual Tone Multi Frequency" tones used by standard telephone sets. The entire Spiro section should be removed.

Bell Technical Journal Correction =

The Bell System Technical Journal article mentioned in the first paragraph of the History section was entitled "In-Band SINGLE-Frequency Signalling" - not "Signal-Frequency". It was published in the November, 1954 issue, not in 1955. —Preceding unsigned comment added by 129.188.69.169 (talk) 21:55, 18 July 2008 (UTC)