112 lines
6.6 KiB
Plaintext
112 lines
6.6 KiB
Plaintext
|
|
|||
|
|
"Loops I've Known and Loved"
|
|||
|
|
|
|||
|
|
No self-respecting Phone Phreak can go through life without knowing what a
|
|||
|
|
loop is, how to use one, and the types that are available. The loop is a great
|
|||
|
|
alternate communication medium that has many potential uses that haven't even
|
|||
|
|
been tapped yet. In order to explain what a loop is, it would be helpful if you
|
|||
|
|
would visualize two phone numbers (lines) just floating around in the Telco
|
|||
|
|
central office. Now, if you (and a friend perhaps) were to call these two
|
|||
|
|
numbers at the same time, POOOOFFFF!!!, you are now connected together. I hear
|
|||
|
|
what you're saying out there ..., "Big deal" or "Why should mother bell collect
|
|||
|
|
two MSU's (message units) for one lousy phone call!?" Well ... think again.
|
|||
|
|
Haven't you ever wanted someone to call you back, but were reluctant to give out
|
|||
|
|
your home phone number (like the last time you tried to get your friends'
|
|||
|
|
unlisted number from the business office)? Or how about a collect call to your
|
|||
|
|
friend waiting on a loop, who will gladly accept the charges? Or better yet,
|
|||
|
|
stumbling a loop that you discover has multi-user capability (for those
|
|||
|
|
late-night conference). Best of all is finding a non- supervised loop that
|
|||
|
|
doesn't charge any MSU's or tolls to one or both parties. Example: many moons
|
|||
|
|
ago, a loop affectionately known as 'The 332 Loop' was non-sup on one 'side'. I
|
|||
|
|
had my friend in California dial the free (non-sup) side, (212) 332 - 9906 and I
|
|||
|
|
dialed the side that charged, 332-9900. As you can see, I was charged one MSU,
|
|||
|
|
and my friend was charged zilch, for as long as we wished to talk!!!
|
|||
|
|
|
|||
|
|
Ahhhh .... have I perked your intrest yet? If so, here is how to find a
|
|||
|
|
loop of your very own. First, do all of your loop searching at NIGHT! This is
|
|||
|
|
because the loops serve a genuine test function which Telco uses during the day.
|
|||
|
|
(We don't want to run into an irate lineman now, do we?) To find a loop, having
|
|||
|
|
two phone numbers is a definite plus. If not, get a friend to dial numbers at
|
|||
|
|
his location. Last resort, try dialing from two adjacent pay phones. Now, get
|
|||
|
|
your trusty white pages, and turn to the page where it lists Metro NY exchanges
|
|||
|
|
and the number of MSU's from your exchange. The idea is to get a loop that is
|
|||
|
|
only one MSU from your calling area so you don't go bankrupt trying to find a
|
|||
|
|
working one. So write down in a list all of these exchanges. The following are
|
|||
|
|
common loop endings (EXC stands for the exchange):
|
|||
|
|
|
|||
|
|
Manhatten and The Bronx ---------- EXC - 9977 & EXC - 9979
|
|||
|
|
Brooklyn and Queens -------------- EXC - 9900 & EXC - 9906
|
|||
|
|
|
|||
|
|
Armed with the preceding info, dial the tone side of a loop. This would be
|
|||
|
|
the 9906 or 9979 side. The best thing that could happen now is that you will be
|
|||
|
|
able to hear yourself, or friend through the loop connection. Eureka, you've
|
|||
|
|
found a loop!!! Unfortunately, this doesn't happen too often. Here are the
|
|||
|
|
more common possibilites:
|
|||
|
|
|
|||
|
|
1. You can hear through the loop (not muted) but there is a 1/2 second click
|
|||
|
|
every 10 seconds that interrupts the audio. Good for backup use, but the
|
|||
|
|
%&%$%%! click is super annoying.
|
|||
|
|
|
|||
|
|
2. One side of the loop is busy; try it again later.
|
|||
|
|
|
|||
|
|
3. The tone disappears, but you cannot hear through it (the loop is muted,
|
|||
|
|
try again in a month or so).
|
|||
|
|
|
|||
|
|
4. You get "The number you have reached" recording. No more loop in that
|
|||
|
|
exchange, go on to next.
|
|||
|
|
|
|||
|
|
Most loops fall into catagory #3, but they do become unmuted from time to
|
|||
|
|
time. O&c% y%0<> <10> <13> <1C>$!<0F><><08> <08> <10> <00><11>@<40><><EFBFBD> '6!: <13><> 8 8 ?>H#? things about step
|
|||
|
|
switching, you can, on a touch tone(R) phone, dial up a number and listen in
|
|||
|
|
the background for the switch level. Let's say you're dialing 941-0226. You
|
|||
|
|
won't hear it rotary dial those numbers, but you will hear another number or
|
|||
|
|
series of numbers in rotary step pulses. That's the selector we mentioned
|
|||
|
|
earlier. Let's say that after you dialed 941-0226, you heard a 5 being pulsed
|
|||
|
|
out. What does that mean? The selector is the decision-making part of the
|
|||
|
|
phone call. Different prefixes are stored in different levels in each central
|
|||
|
|
office. In this particular case, 941 happens to be stored in level 5 in
|
|||
|
|
whatever office you're calling from. There's no rhyme or reason to it; the
|
|||
|
|
selector level could be anything up to three digits in length. (If it was
|
|||
|
|
three digits, you'd hear each individual digit get pulsed out.) The toll
|
|||
|
|
center is usually level 1 and the operator is usually level 0. So what can be
|
|||
|
|
done with this information? If, after dialing 941-0226, you enter your own
|
|||
|
|
rotary five, you'll once again hear the click-click which is your cue for MF
|
|||
|
|
tones.
|
|||
|
|
|
|||
|
|
While step offices have no special phone phreak trapping capabilities, they
|
|||
|
|
a just as dangerous as any other office as far as being traced. They have
|
|||
|
|
what's known as trap and trace. If a certain person (or computer) is begin
|
|||
|
|
harrassed, they'll put a trap plug on a particular line. If you happen to call
|
|||
|
|
into that number, you won't be able to hang up until the other party does.
|
|||
|
|
|
|||
|
|
Some More Tricks
|
|||
|
|
|
|||
|
|
In some step areas, local calls are limited to certain exchanges that have
|
|||
|
|
th same first digits as yours. For example, the 222 exchange can dial 235 and
|
|||
|
|
263 as local calls. But in order to call the 637 exchange, you must first dial
|
|||
|
|
a 1 which makes the call non-local. If you dial a 6, you'll get an immediate
|
|||
|
|
reorder. But somewhere between you and the 637 exchange, is the 231, 233, 235,
|
|||
|
|
and 239 exchanges. There's no 237. So you dial 2. Clunk-clunk. You dial 3.
|
|||
|
|
Click. And then you dial 7. Ching-clunk. It goes to the 637 exchange!
|
|||
|
|
Similarly, a 281 from he 287 exchange could wind up in 471. Why? Because
|
|||
|
|
these numbers are all coming from the same switching center. That just happens
|
|||
|
|
to be the way step works (and in some cases crossbar). If you could seize the
|
|||
|
|
222 trunk, you'd enter KP+25500+ST to reach 222-5500. To reach 637-5500, you'd
|
|||
|
|
enter KP+755000+ST.
|
|||
|
|
|
|||
|
|
Then there's "step crashing"--if the number you're calling is 675-2888, and
|
|||
|
|
it's busy, you can dial 675-2887, and in between the last pulse of your rotary
|
|||
|
|
dial and the time it would start to ring, you can flash you switchhook
|
|||
|
|
extremely fast. If you time it right, you'll hear an enormous loud click at
|
|||
|
|
your end. Then, all of the sudden, you'll cut into your party's conversation.
|
|||
|
|
(This works bacause of step's realy system. One relay has determined that the
|
|||
|
|
line you dialed is open. Then, before a second relay sends along the ring
|
|||
|
|
pulse, you throw in a 1, which jumps the number you dialed up by one, and fools
|
|||
|
|
the system into conn FOR DARK PRIEST. THANKING YOU IN
|
|||
|
|
ADVANCE, AND ENJOY YOUR LOOPS.
|
|||
|
|
|
|||
|
|
*******DARK PRIEST********
|
|||
|
|
*******DARK FOREST*********
|
|||
|
|
********DARK DAY***********
|
|||
|
|
******END*********
|
|||
|
|
|