textfiles/phreak/phones

@*
In which the denizens of the INF join forces to assail whatever manner of hotel
telephone frustrates them in their attempt to telecommunicate....



Fm: Ed Nunnally 70445,177
To: Joan Friedman 76556,3643

I think I remember that you mentioned having a "black box" that screws on to
the phones mouth piece and allows easy hookup of a computer to a hotel phone.
Could you tell me where I could get one and how much?


Fm: Joan Friedman 76556,3643
To: Ed Nunnally 70445,177 (X)

I've never had a "black box" for use on hotel phones.  I have an extensive
"kit" of various types of phone wiring for connecting a modem to hotel phones,
including one setup (modular connector on one end, bare wires with alligator
clips on the other) which is supposed to be possible to hook up to the two
"live" wires you find when you unscrew the mouthpiece of a phone handset.  I've
never had to resort to that, though (and, sometimes the phones are not the sort
that this will work with anyway).  I've found the most useful cord is one with
a modular connector on one end, and the four colored wires on the other end
terminating in lug connectors.  This can be used for connecting directly to the
wall junction box, and allows you to leave the phoneset connected too.  In both
of these cases, only the red and green wires need to be attached.  My kit also
includes a small screwdriver, a regular length of phone cord with modular
connectors on both ends, and a connector for attaching lengths of modular phone
cords (double female receptacle).  At Connie's suggestion, I'm also going to
look for an adapter that splits a two-line plug to two single-line plugs.


Fm: N. Arley Dealey 70130,177
To: Ed Nunnally 70445,177 (X)

The device you are thinking about is called the "Black Jack" and costs $49.95
from the Microperipheral Corporation, 2565 - 152nd Avenue NE, Redmond, WA
98052, (206) 881-7544.  I've never used it but it is reputed to work quite well
(even at 1200).

There are a couple of drawbacks...

(A) It won't work with many phones.  Forget phones with mouthpieces that are
other than round right off the bat.  Pay phones (and even some in motels) have
mouthpieces that do not unscrew, so scratch them also.  And many non-Western
Electric phones use different types of microphones in the handset and so won't
work with it.

(B) It costs $49.95.

So what do I recommend... two things actually:

(1) You can make a functional duplicate of the Black Jack very cheaply. All you
need is a piece of phone cable with an RJ11 plug on one end and alligator clips
on the other.  Unscrew the mouthpiece, connect the clips and off you go (as
long as you don't mind looking and feeling like some kind of spy).  Will also
work with several phones that the commercial unit won't.

(2) For pay phones and the like there is still nothing to beat old fashioned
acoustic cups.  No need to buy a full acoustic coupler, though.  3M has a set
of acoustic cups that just clip into the phone line connector of your modem for
about $80.


Fm: Joan Friedman 76556,3643
To: N. Arley Dealey 70130,177

Arley, do you know of a source for the 3M acoustic cups you mention? I've often
used an acoustic coupler with my Model 100 with good results, but it's a Radio
Shack special that only connects to the M100. What you mention is just what
I've been hoping to find to use with the Compaq and the Hayes 1200B.


Fm: N. Arley Dealey 70130,177
To: Joan Friedman 76556,3643

Sorry, I really don't know of a specific source.  I'd suggest that you look up
a 3M Data Products distributer in the phone book.  What you want is the Model
1490 Acoustic Coupler for the 3M WhisperWriter.

As an interesting aside, I've had it reported that they work fine at 1200
(which surprises me).


Fm: Bill Mueller 75166,2557
To: Joan Friedman 76556,3643

I was reading the messages from a couple of days ago and saw you are interested
in 3M's Acoustic Coupler.  Arley's info about the model number is right on the
money.  In case you haven't followed up on it yet, here are the address's and
phone numbers for a couple of 3M offices near you:
          One Maxim Rd,  Hartford  (203) 527-5003
          845 Third Ave  New York  (212) 688-2030


Fm: SysOp Wes Meier 76703,747
To: Joan Friedman 76556,3643

FYI, I've tried that trick of alligator clipping to the two little prongs under
the telephone handset's mouth mike.  You have to pry the mike up a bit to see
the wires under the prongs and then clip the red lead onto the red wire.

Works like a champ. Now, if ONLY most hotels would upgrade the quality of their
phone circuitry!!!!!


Fm: Conrad Kageyama (IBMSIG) 76703,1010
To: SysOp Wes Meier 76703,747 (X)

You shoulda seen the system at the Le Bel Age!!!...  Each telephone was a full
console, twin lines, conferencing, direct push-button to services, and
completely computer-controlled!!!...  If you broke a line connection, the
terminal would go down for about 5 minutes until the system reset...  Cute, but
we couldn't break into the phone system...  I gots to try again with that
line-splitter though...


Fm: Joan Friedman 76556,3643
To: Conrad Kageyama (IBMSIG) 76703,1010 (X)

I just stopped by the Shack this afternoon and picked up one of those
splitters.  According to the picture on the package, you can still have the
dual-line console connected to one of its output sockets while plugging in your
modem or answering machine to one of the two single-line sockets.  Pretty neat,
if it works: no need to keep plugging and unplugging the phone.  I have similar
connectors for single lines, and they have always worked as advertised.  All I
need now is a bigger pouch to tote all this stuff around in!  If you want to
find one, it's RS part no. 279-402, "two-line modular 3-way jack." $6.95.


Fm: Conrad Kageyama (IBMSIG) 76703,1010
To: Ed Nunnally 70445,177 (X)

You don't have to "make up" the cord... you can get it at Radio Shack all ready
to go... you also oughta get a cord that has a modular on one end and dual
plugs on the other so that if the system is modular, you can still have your
phone hooked up...


Fm: Conrad Kageyama (IBMSIG) 76703,1010
To: Joan Friedman 76556,3643

I can also confirm that it works...  you just tap into the mouthpiece and
earpiece take the phone off the hook, dial, and do an ATO from terminal mode...


Fm: Joan Friedman 76556,3643
To: Conrad Kageyama (IBMSIG) 76703,1010 (X)

Mouthpiece *and* earpiece?  I thought both wires were under the microphone in
the mouthpiece?


Fm: Conrad Kageyama (IBMSIG) 76703,1010
To: Joan Friedman 76556,3643

well, yes, both the red and the green are in the mouthpiece, but you can only
get to one of the wires (the red, I think)...  The exposed green wire is in the
earpiece...  What's the diff???  If you take the mouthpiece apart, the phone is
useless anyway...<grin>...


Fm: N. Arley Dealey 70130,177
To: Conrad Kageyama (IBMSIG) 76703,1010 (X)

I've never had to take the earpiece off!  What are _you_ up to?  <grin>


Fm: Conrad Kageyama (IBMSIG) 76703,1010
To: N. Arley Dealey 70130,177 (X)

uh, then how do you get to the other wire???...  I saw one wire coming off the
connector that went to a screw onto which I could apply an alligator clip, but
the green wire just came straight out of the connector and ran up the
handset...  No place to tap on that I could see, short of stripping the wire...


Fm: N. Arley Dealey 70130,177
To: Conrad Kageyama (IBMSIG) 76703,1010

Well, you've sort of got me here as its been a long time since I connected this
way (I generally prefer several other methods) and I don't have a Western
Electric handset here to refresh my memory, but... it seems I just opened it up
and attached to the obvious points. Of course, the innards of handsets are no
longer standardized like they used to be.  Some of the ones you run across
nowadays offer no possibility to get to either wire (take a look at a Radio
Shack handset someday... yeck).


Fm: Joan Friedman 76556,3643
To: Conrad Kageyama (IBMSIG) 76703,1010

I've just dismantled the handset in my office, which is a pretty old Western
Electric baby.  Right under the plastic mouthpiece containing the microphone
(which is removable), is another plastic gizmo containing two metal springs
that make contact with the microphone.  You can partially remove this gizmo to
get to the wires, but it's not necessary, since you can attach your alligator
clips to the metal springs.  Haven't yet tried to dial, though.


Fm: Conrad Kageyama (IBMSIG) 76703,1010
To: Joan Friedman 76556,3643

uh, but on my handsets, one of those metal springs is connected to the BLACK
wire, while the other is connected to the RED wire...  The GREEN wire is in the
earpiece...


Fm: N. Arley Dealey 70130,177
To: Conrad Kageyama (IBMSIG) 76703,1010

It doesn't really matter where you connect to the wire.  If you connect at the
handset you can still use the modem's dialing capabilities, tone or pulse.  In
fact, if you have acoustic cups and a modem that tone dials you can still use
the modem to dial.


Fm: David Klatzco 74025,1005
To: Joan Friedman 76556,3643

Someone has mentioned an acoustic cups setup that plugs into a modem comes
complete with and amplifier to boost the direct connect signal to acoustic
level.  It was for a fac machine or some such.  He quoted a price of $85 or so.
I don't remember any more about it, I'm jsut hoping whoever left the message
will pipe up here.


Fm: Ken Jongsma 73115,1041
To: Joan Friedman 76556,3643

Was reading a few weeks ago in Teleconnect (a comm mag) that one hotel chain
was using an odd combination of colors (instead of red/green) in their hotel
wiring to discourage theft of the telephones!  Apparently, they felt when the
people got home and found the phone didn't work, they wouldn't do it again!
Anyway, the mouthpiece trick should work around that problem.


Fm: David Klatzco 74025,1005
To: Joan Friedman 76556,3643

You can't dial pulse dial though the hand set.  You should be able to tone
dial.  (this may not be any help 'cause I am working with limited info) Also
some of the newer electronic telephone systems won't let you tone dial through
their systems, I don't know why.


Fm: Joan Friedman 76556,3643
To: David Klatzco 74025,1005

But it's not a tone phone!  How could that possibly work?  I'll give it a try
though; not to worry about "newer electronic phone systems," that's definitely
not what we have!  The campus is in the process of being rewired for same, and
then we'll have proper data lines in place, with modular outlets and all, but
they won't reach this part of campus for another 15 months.


Fm: Ed Fitzgerald 72447,1631
To: Joan Friedman 76556,3643

You know, don't you, that if you open up the phone itself, you can connect your
red and green wires to the L1 and L2 terminals?  I'm in a hotel in Detroit, and
that's how I'm connected right now.


Fm: N. Arley Dealey 70130,177
To: Tom Herman NYC 74316,661

Tone dialing works fine when you are clipped into the handset.  It doesn't
matter whether you connect at the junction box, inside the main part of the
phone (I used to butcher hotel phones themselves to connect, still do
occasionally... whatever is easiest in the particular situation) or the
handset, its still all the same circuit.


Fm: N. Arley Dealey 70130,177
To: Joan Friedman 76556,3643

Sorry, I guess I forgot to make it clear that you can _tone_ dial when clipped
into the handset.  Doesn't matter if the phone has tone dialing as long as the
exchange supports it (and some still don't despite the phone companies and
their propoganda).


Fm: Joan Friedman 76556,3643
To: N. Arley Dealey 70130,177

What I found is that not only *can* you dial tone, but only tone seems to work.
I don't quite understand why, but I'm not complaining, since it seems to give
me a very good line.  The only thing is, you can hear static out of the
earpiece for the entire duration of the call!


@*
Fm: Joan Friedman 76556,3643
To: ALL

I am here to report that I have had success in tapping into my office phone (as
you can see from the time stamp on my messages!) via the "unscrew the
microphone" method.  In the interests of clarity, here is how it worked:

First, I have a lenth of phone cord with a modular connector at one end, which
is attached normally to my modem.  The other end I've stripped the outer
insulation off of, to reveal the four separate colored wires.  I stripped the
insulation off the ends of the red and green wires and attached alligator
clips.  Unscrewing the microphone of the phone (the mouthpiece is sufficient,
no need to touch the earpiece), I attached the alligator clips to the metal
springs that normally make contact with the microphone and, on their bottom
side, have the hot wires attached.  These wires are, in this phone, red and
black; I attached red to red, and green to black, and it works!

The trick is, you must set your modem for tone dialling, as suggested by Dave
Klatzco.  I didn't quite understand this, since the phone line is a pulse line.
But making that change made it work.  The modem will then autodial, no need for
you to dial manually.  It seems to give a very good connection too.


Fm: David Klatzco (temp) 70136,510
To: Joan Friedman 76556,3643

SOME pulse lines will accept the tone dialing, not all.
If you come up against a pulse system that will not dial;
       First: switch the wires you connected to the MIC.
               Tone systems are polarized.
       Second: If tone dialing sill does not work then the system
               is pulse only.  Tap in after the phone. At the wall
               would be best.  The transformers in the phone make
               it impossible to pulse dial when connected to the
               MIC in the handset.
With tone dialing remember to try switching the leads.  They have
to be connected the correct way.
I am confident that you will now be able to handle ANY phone connection!
(Well we really haven't gone over payphones have we?) <grin>