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Installing a payphone in my house

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Re: Installing a payphone in my house

#41

Post by jamal-kumar »

ck2 wrote: post #32
idontwantthis wrote: post #20

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I rewatched all 3 recently, and I have to say I don't remember why I and everyone else disliked the sequels so much. They are exciting, and tell a good story. I haven't watched the new one yet.

Do not watch the fourth. Not kidding. It's not worth the curiosity. Yes the 2nd and 3rd were great despite critics. The fourth is a "WTF who wrote this garbage money grab" the entire time, it's not even "fan service" because it destroys everything with poor writing and terrible acting, feels like someone was shouting "we'll fix it in post" after every first take rushing to the next shot to churn it out. Remember how…

I'm really of the opinion that they did that on purpose given the philosophical underpinnings of the original. Like, to make a point, because Warner Bros owned the rights to their franchise and were going to make some banal crap anyways, with or without the Wachowskis.

Re: Installing a payphone in my house

#42

Post by jamal-kumar »

nahmean wrote: post #39
jjeaff wrote: post #37

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Was it literally just the sound of money dropping that validated the call? Presumably this was before automatic switching and a live operator had to connect you?

At one point it was. You could even record the sound on a handheld recorder and play it back. But it hasn’t worked in a long while. Pay phones mitigated this in a low tech way - by software muting the handset. Edit: oh yeah, and after that, you’d just call the operator and tell them the keys were sticky and to dial the number for you, then you’d “insert the coins” by playing the tones. Well, or you just third party b…

After this mitigation was put into place enterprising phreaks would take a lighter to the microphone part of the handset, twist it open, cut the yellow wire, and redbox away.

Re: Installing a payphone in my house

#43

Post by CaliforniaKarl »

dhosek wrote: post #40
jjeaff wrote: post #37

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Was it literally just the sound of money dropping that validated the call? Presumably this was before automatic switching and a live operator had to connect you?

It was automated. The coin drop sound (or at least what was generated for the wire by the phone) was what drove the switch. All signals on POTS lines were sounds (thus the tones for pressing buttons or the numbers of clicks from dial phones).

In the beginning, it was a real bell! One bell for 5¢, rung twice for 10¢, and a separate gong sound for 25¢.

Re: Installing a payphone in my house

#44

Post by mherdeg »

hayleox wrote: post #8

I did really enjoy this post, but is it just a tiny bit weird how casual he is about repeatedly committing fraud? Not asking for some grand apology (lord knows the crap I did as a kid), but the post is written like defrauding an ISP is just a normal and fine thing to do. Am I off base here?

This is more or less the tone of 2600 magazine though -- people very cheerfully admit to stuff which, yes, is totally unwise to write down that you have done.

The weird thing is we have had the CFAA hanging over us as some kind of Sword of Damocles for decades and we just collectively ignored it. Honestly everyone was even pretty cavalier about this stuff during and after the Mitnick prosecution...

In the 2000s when I talked to people who do urban exploration there was at least an understanding that you should not be taking photos in sensitive locations -- "please don't make a felony diary".

Re: Installing a payphone in my house

#45

Post by dhosek »

dQw4w9WgXcQ wrote: post #31
hayleox wrote: post #8

I did really enjoy this post, but is it just a tiny bit weird how casual he is about repeatedly committing fraud? Not asking for some grand apology (lord knows the crap I did as a kid), but the post is written like defrauding an ISP is just a normal and fine thing to do. Am I off base here?

You must be Gen-Z or younger. Small-time "fraud" antics like this were part of the hacker ethos throughout the 80s and 90s, some highlights being the Anarchist Cookbook, Matthew Broderick changing school records in Ferris Bueller's Day Off, and Kevin Mitnick as one of the notable poster children of the new era of cyber enforcement crackdowns. Even the word "hacker" meant something a lot different than today where kid…

Not to mention Matthew Broderick changing school records in Wargames (before almost starting World War III). He was doing a lot of changing school records back in the 80s.

Re: Installing a payphone in my house

#47

Post by jamesy0ung »

jamal-kumar wrote: post #10

Back when I was a kid I had alot of fun using methods to get free phone calls on these things. Like, beyond just red-boxing or whatever (Past that time). In Japan, they would just accept DTMF tones from anything that would generate them. There was all these people using hacked cards that they installed countermeasures against which were hilarious because people using these hacked yakuza cards would keep one foot in t…

> In Japan, they would just accept DTMF tones from anything that would generate them. There was all these people using hacked cards that they installed countermeasures against which were hilarious because people using these hacked yakuza cards would keep one foot in the doorway in case the fabled alarm would go off, i knew a guy who did this thinking naaah it would never happen to me. NOPE happens to him, he had to squeeze himself out of that phone booth and run after a red light started flashing and the door slammed shut on his shoe... Literally just playing the DTMF tones into the handset would have gotten past that on every 'grey phone' out there (The ones that advertise ISDN connectivity). Wouldn't be surprised if that still works if they still have those phones anywhere.

How did this work? Did it literally lock you inside and how did you exit?

Re: Installing a payphone in my house

#48

Post by CaliforniaKarl »

cbhl wrote: post #36

I feel like the logical next step is for the author to discover PBX, such as Asterisk or something built on top of it. Then they can call between the two in-house phones and also dial out to the real phone line in an emergency. Just need an old PC, a compatible dial-up modem with voice, and a card with a few FXO ports to go to the payphone and child's phone...

It would be cool! You'd need FXS ports, though (those are the ones which provide the line/ring voltage). You'd also need to research how the payphone indicated coin insertion (bell/2bell/bong or something else), and how to tell the payphone to either return the coins or drop them into the box (in some cases it's an MF signal, in others it's polarity reversal of the phone line).
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