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.
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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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| There are 64 files for a total of 717,526 bytes. |