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[–] [deleted] • 2 pts

Before phone switching was handled digitally, you could hack the analog automated switch board with tones played thru the send line of your phone. There was a whistle that came in a cereal box that could get you free long distance. I've never done it tho, that was well before me.

[–] • 1 pt

You can still do this on POTS phones, at least to dial. Just playing the right sounds into the microphone will dial the number.

[–] [deleted] • 0 pt

Interesting. I thought it was all digital by now. I'm gonna have to patch a synth in and try it. If I can find a touch tone telephone that is.

[–] • 1 pt
[–] • 1 pt

The distinction isn't actually digital vs. analog but in-band vs. out-of-band. For dialing, it might as well be in-band, since the end user has to have control over it. They used to also do things like authorizing long-distance calls through in-band signalling, which is why phreaking worked. Phone company equipment sent audio signals to other phone company equipment over the same line that you were talking over, so if you made the same audio signals, the target equipment would respond in the normal way. That's all out-of-band now (the equipment communicates over lines that you don't have access to), so that's why you can't phreak that way anymore. If they had kept it in-band but just switched to digital, you could still phreak; it would just need something more sophisticated than a whistle from a box of Captain Crunch.

[–] • 1 pt (edited )

How did we go from whistling into telephones to blowing air into axe wounds?

[–] [deleted] • 0 pt

I'm not sure what you mean. But that can't be healthy.

[–] • 1 pt

axe wound = tranny "vagina"

[–] • 1 pt

Apparently you could record the tone it made when putting quarters in and just play it back through the mic to trick the payphones into thinking that you were putting quarters in.

Never worked for me.

Also apparently you could tear a dollar at just the right spot before feeding it into a change machine to get the quarters and your dollar back.

Never worked for me.

[–] [deleted] • 0 pt

I remember hearing that now that you mention it. I never actually used a payphone but I remember seeing them at the mall.

Theres a pdf somewhere out there that tells you how to get into the debug menue of the vending machines that had the single column of buttons and the small red LED screen. Once your in the debug menue you can tell the machine to dump the change. I got into the menue but I was afraid to actually let it do that so i just left the machine in debug mode. Fun times at walmart.