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Where does the word "phreak", in reference to manipulating phone systems to get free calls and access to internal systems, originate; and who is the man infamous for making phreaking a common-mans thing? (Real name and nickname, as well as origin of his nickname)

A cookie the size of the moon to whoever gets them all right.

And whatever you do, Do NOT BUILD A BL0TTO B0X!!!

Captin crunch, i know nothing else.

darthdavid wrote:Captin crunch, i know nothing else.

And the Legend of the 2600Hz Cap'n Crunch Whistle which Unlocked AT&T's Free Calling...

Jon Draper made it popular but didn't actually invent the techneek.

Captain Crunch was the most famous of them. He discovered that the old analog AT&T phone system relied on tones to control the network; he discovered that a toy whistle from a Captain Crunch cereal box produced the neccessary tone to make long-distance calls without charge.

Later in the 1980s and 1990s the large (and, for that matter, most small) telecom networks were gradually switched over to digital control systems, rendering such analog trickery useless.

Random note about AT&T: Until they were broken up, AT&T maintained a superhardened backbone consisting of microwave relay stations that was designed to withstand total nuclear war. Many spare parts were stored in these facilities, along with NBC filtration equipment and other goods. Most were buried and built with reinforced concrete.

When AT&T was forced to split up, that network was slowly abandoned as no company could afford to totally maintain it. Its final death knell came when MCI (now MCI Worldcom) completed their own, nonhardened continental system.

noones given me all the info yet

give up yet?

phongn wrote:Random note about AT&T: Until they were broken up, AT&T maintained a superhardened backbone consisting of microwave relay stations that was designed to withstand total nuclear war. Many spare parts were stored in these facilities, along with NBC filtration equipment and other goods. Most were buried and built with reinforced concrete.

That's crazy. What the hell did they do that for?

Arthur_Tuxedo wrote:

phongn wrote:Random note about AT&T: Until they were broken up, AT&T maintained a superhardened backbone consisting of microwave relay stations that was designed to withstand total nuclear war. Many spare parts were stored in these facilities, along with NBC filtration equipment and other goods. Most were buried and built with reinforced concrete.

That's crazy. What the hell did they do that for?

Cold War. Good idea to me, keep the phones working in case not all people die when the world decides to play "catch the nukes"

Arthur_Tuxedo wrote:

phongn wrote:Random note about AT&T: Until they were broken up, AT&T maintained a superhardened backbone consisting of microwave relay stations that was designed to withstand total nuclear war. Many spare parts were stored in these facilities, along with NBC filtration equipment and other goods. Most were buried and built with reinforced concrete.

That's crazy. What the hell did they do that for?

It was the Cold War. It was to make sure the flesh eating zombie hordes created by a thermonuclear apocolypse could still make calls!

Well, noones answered correctly, so heres the answers!

:: Where does the word "phreak" in reference to manipulating phone systems to get free calls and access to internal systems, originate;

Phreak comes from the use of specific frequencies to mess with the phone system. Frequency was contracted to freq which got misspelled into phreak.

:: and who is the man infamous for making phreaking a common-mans thing? (Real name and nickname, as well as origin of his nickname)

Captain Crunch, aka John Draper, who discovered a whistle in a box of Cap'n Crunch cereal made the perfect 2600hz note which just happened to be the frequency to make free calls.

All you guys needed was John Draper, and to put it all together in one post! So close so close. ::eats gigantor cookie::

Stormbringer wrote:

Arthur_Tuxedo wrote:That's crazy. What the hell did they do that for?

It was the Cold War. It was to make sure the flesh eating zombie hordes created by a thermonuclear apocolypse could still make calls!

Yes, but they were a private company. What was in it for them?

Part of the reason why AT&T does this lies in how the American phone worked. A region was served by the "Baby Bells" (AT&T subsidiaries) that could not directly interoperate with the others. AT&T (the national company) tied them together - originally with microwave transmission and coax. This network was constructed after WW2 during the Cold War.

With the Cold War, AT&T believed strongly in the need for a resistant communications network. As they were the telephone monopoly, they had enough cash to create a superhardened network and support it. There wasn't that much in it for them - other than doing it because it was the right thing to do.

In the 1980s the system was dismantled; AT&T after its breakup could not afford to run this system (the DoD passionately argued to keep AT&T's monopoly for this reason). The coming of the Internet also meant that this line could not possibly handle that much bandwidth: today the backbones are all fibre.

Interesting point: the main stations for this system were designed to withstand 20MT airbusts at 2.5 miles.