56 lines
2.8 KiB
Plaintext
56 lines
2.8 KiB
Plaintext
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What May be the End of Blue Boxing
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By: The Kook
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Well, as it has been said, indeed all good things must come to an end, and for
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most of us, that end is coming for blue boxing. Blue boxes are indeed a
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dwindling resource, but there's no need to throw them out yet. They aren't
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going to be TOTALLY obsolete for quite some time now.
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Basically, AT&T is converting to CCIS (Common Channel Interoffice Signaling).
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These don't allow boxing.
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In-band signaling is the only kind of trunk signaling that supports boxing.
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It is by far the most prevalent at the moment. Basically, in-band uses a 2600
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hertz tone to indicate that a trunk is idle, and thus can accept routing
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instructions from an "outsider".
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To box a call, a phreaker blasts 2600 down the line after making a long
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distance call. The line thinks it's idle and waits for routing instructions.
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Thus, the line thinks it's idle, then it recieves the routing instructions, and
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routes the call to wherever the person sent it. Now, his central office (CO),
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which does all billing, thinks he is making a call to wherever, so it keeps
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billing him at that rate. If it happens to think he was making a toll free call
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it will not bill him at all!
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Another form of signalling is out-of-band. This uses control tones out of the
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normal band of telephone transmission (approx. 800 hertz to 3000 hertz). The
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idle tone is 3200 hertz, as opposed to 2600 for in-band. All other tones are
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shifted up also. So why couldn't you just make a new box? Don't forget- it's
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out of band. Those tones are not normal transmission, so the local CO and
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customer interface loop don't bother to transmit them. You can blast all the
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3200 you want - it won't go through the CO to the trunk. But this is not the
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"Death of Boxing" as it has several disadvantages to the telco too numerous to
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mention.
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The real death of boxing lies in Common Channel Interoffice Signaling (CCIS).
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This is a direct connect data line going from one ESS switcher to another at
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speeds of up to 4.8 kB (usually 1.2) - incredible speeds. All routing
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instructions are sent through these lines. It isn't looking for control tones
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on the trunk; it's getting them elsewhere. This means you can blast 2600 hertz
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tones all you like, and it won't do a thing because the equipment is no longer
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listening for them. This kind of signaling is being phased in all over the
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country - look for one in your neighborhood.
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Since CCIS has benefits for really high volume trunks, you can try looking for
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long distance trunks to Canada, or rural states. These probably won't be phased
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in for a long time, if at all. (Remember, very few companies just invest in new
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technology for new tech's sake; even AT&T won't be able to do this for long).
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Copyright (C) 1986 By The Kook & SMASH
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(>Uploaded by Thomas Covenant
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