Phone Phreaking: Blue Boxing

To a young person dabbling in the underground in the early 1980s, few concepts were as powerful, alluring, or exciting as the "Blue Box". A number of simple circuits enclosed with push buttons, it changed everything in the relationship between the Phone Company (Ma Bell) and her customers (The Peons).

Created in the late 1960's and working well into the 1980s (and maybe beyond), the Blue Box took advantage of a design flaw in the entire telephone system: it was possible to gain access to parts of phone switching equipment and send them false signals to make the machinery do whatever you wanted.

With the blast of a 2600hz tone down a telephone line (signifying you Meant Serious Business), you could seize the telephone trunk and gain a sort of "Administrator" access to the phone switching equipment. And since operators were unlikely to do the sort of wild experimentation that a phreak with a blue box would try, all sorts of amazing things would happen with a few button presses.

The Blue Box was a tangible Swiss Army Knife of the telephone, a powerful tool that gave the whole world to you in a small box. Little like it has been seen since. It inspired dozens and dozens of other phone-related home-grown circuits, who all were given the label of "(Color) Box" in homage.


Filename
Size
Description of the Textfile
40bluebox.txt 12474
Blue Box Plans (40 Columns, with Borders!)
advfreq.txt 9226
Advanced Blueboxing, by Guru Josh (December 13, 1991)
anar5.txt 11663
The Building a Blue Box
at&tcode.txt 9190
AT&T/BOC Routing Codes List
bbbuild.txt 10649
How to Build a Blue Box
bbfreq.txt 24514
The Real "Info's" about Blue Boxing Version 1.01 by Phreaker's Paradise (August 5, 1991)
bbnumber.txt 1751
Collection of 1-800 Numbers that will Drop a Trunk in ESS
bbox 1004
Blue Box Frequency List
bethome1.phk 9545
Blue Boxing Information, Part 1
bhbb1.hac 9837
Better Homes and Blue Boxing Part I, by Mark Tabas
bhbb2.hac 14294
Better Homes and Blue Boxing Part II: Practical Applications
bhbb3.hac 10005
Better Homes and Blue Boxing Part III: Advanced Signalling
blubxrus.box 3926
How to Blue Box into Russia, by Mark Tabas
blue.box 17497
Blue Box Plans, by Mr. America
blue0002.box 8319
Basic Construction, Troubleshooting and Adjustment of the Blue Box
blue0003.box 4782
Blue Boxing Safely Today, by the Micro Master
blue1.phk 22755
The Real Info About Blue Boxing from Hannover, United Germany
blue10.box 14643
Blue Box Construction, by Mr. Nibblemaster
blue11.txt 2816
Using a Blue Box as Associated with PicturePhone
blue2.box 2560
Assorted Blue Box Frequencies
blue2.phk 5301
COMPLETELY (but humorously) screwed up transcription of a Blue Boxing File
blue2.txt 14336
Overview of Making a Blue Box
blue3.box 19929
Various Blue Box Information
blue3.con 4131
Blue Box Plans: An Original OSUNY Phile
blue3.phk 11724
Building a Blue Box
blue4.box 55618
Compilation of many Blue Boxing Textfiles
blue5.box 4785
Blue Boxing, by The Micro Master
blue5.phk 12449
Building your own Blue Box, by Jester Sluggo
blue6 4480
Some Things To Do With Your Blue Box When You're Bored
blue6.box 30791
Complete Overview of the Technical Reasons behind Blue Boxing
blue7.box 13827
The Art and Practice of Blue Boxing, by Nickie Halflinger
blue8.box 8101
Some Advice on Using a Blue Box
blue9.box 6085
Blue Boxing Information
blue9.txt 16000
Informative Overview of the History and Aspects of Blue Boxing
blue_art.txt 13258
The Art and Practice of Blue Boxing
blue_sec.txt 11742
"Secrets of the Little Blue Box" by Ron Rosenbaum (40 col. version, from the Greek Inn BBS)
bluebeep.txt 47087
Documentation on the BlueBEEP Boxing Program
bluebh.box 24708
Better Homes and Blue Boxing, Parts II and III
bluebox.doc 6784
Various Blue Boxing Information
bluebox.txt 12744
Basic Construction and Operation of the Blue Box, from OSUNY BBS
blueboxi.txt 4617
Advanced Blue Boxing, from 13th Floor Enterprises
bluefact.txt 2172
Don't Believe the Hype of Lamers! Blue Boxing in the UK is Dead! By 2Tuff/Crystal
bluelex.box 13505
Blue Box Plans by Lex Luthor
blueti99 1664
Making a TI/994a into a Blue Box
boxbust.txt 1213
Some Guys In France Got Busted for Blue Boxing!
boxing4.txt 3833
How to Blue Box Into Russia by Mark Tabas
bprison.txt 2343
Blue Boxing in 1991 (Phreaking Without Knowledge)
bxblue.txt 1411
Well, Dudes, Here's How you Use a Blue Box
deadblue.phk 2886
What may be the End of Blue Boxing, by the Kook (1986)
dialing.txt 9588
Advanced Blueboxing by Guru Josh (December 13, 1991)
euro.box 22646
Information about Blue Boxing in Other Countries
eurobbox.txt 22733
The Real Information About Blue Boxing in Eurpose and Other Countries by Phreaker's Paradise (August 5, 1991)
jolly.box 32311
Jolly Box Plans (Creates a Blue box on a computer)
laymans.box 5369
Blue Boxes, by the Technician (A Layman's Definition)
manual7.s 18656
TSC Multi-Frequency Dialer v7.1: The Bluebox Program for Atari ST/STE
misp15.phk 12497
Blue Box Information/Construction, from The Overlord
nofilter.txt 1958
The Blue Box Filter, by Lord Raphael (December 29, 1991)
obb.phk 8583
The Basic Construction, Troubleshooting, and Adjustment of a Blue Box
phoney.phk 1474
Secrets of the Little Blue Box (Short) by AP&P
portbb.txt 5877
Portable Blue Box Plans by Ford Prefect (May 21, 1984)
ukblue.phk 4782
The UK Blue Box Plans, using 2280hz.
warn0003.txt 3175
A Very Big Italian Warning To Stop using Blue Boxes
warn0004.txt 3164
Warning about using Blue Box Numbers in Germany, by TRAX
yabb.txt 5739
Documentation for the Yet Another Blue Box Software, Version 0.93, January 1992

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