Underground Anarchy ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~ An Extensive Guide to Bell System Man Holes (c) 1992 Vonnegut [PHLiGHT] First Edit : May 25th, 1992*****************************************************************************Underground telephone networking done by Bell is fascinating stuff and fairlyeasy to gain access to. If you know what you're doing, you can accomplishalot, learn alot, and take home some stuff to play with.*****************************************************************************Getting Underground~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~First, you will need to find one of those Bell manholes. They are VERY heavyand say "Bell System" on them. In the country, they are harder to find thanin cities and suburbs. Look on the paved main roads and you will probablyfind some. They have a little square hole in the middle which is how youwill getting inside. Stick the hook side of a crowbar in the hole and pushdown. When the lid lifts, grab it and roll it onto the street or sidewalk.It is best to do this at night because it is obviously *very* easy to getcaught doing this. Before you stick your feet in, look for the ladder rungs!The drop is 6-10 feet if you fall, and it can get very damp and slippery downthere! If you're new at this, leave the lid half-open (never completely!)and also bring a friend: if one of you gets hurt, they can always run homeand get help. Also, bring a flash light so you can see what the hell you'redoing until you find the light. If you can get one of those mining helmetswith the light on it, use it.What You Should See~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~There will be a small room at the bottom which sometimes has tunnels. Therewill be all kinds of telephone equipment down there, and sometimes even acomputer which is connected to a humungous network. There will also bepipes on the walls that have cables running through them. Each one will saywhat's going through it, or be color coded. There is often a chart on thewall.Dull Green Boxes: Opening~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~These things are called bridging heads and each one has as many as 1200 cablepairs inside! There are many different varieties of these with differentlevels of function in the network, but most are made by Western Electric orGTE, and these are the ones I will be discussing. The larger WesternElectric ones with the WE logo on the bottom feed the whole area. The normalbridging heads, which are smaller and often made by GTE, are usually bridgingfor homes and individual buildings.These things are tons of fun to play with. If it's locked, stick your crow-bar in the slot above the top hinge on the right door. If you pull nice andhard, the door will rip right off. If it isn't locked, take a 7/16th inchhex socket and turn the bolt s-l-o-w-l-y to the left until you hear like alittle pop. Hold onto the bolt and turn the handle all the way top the rightand pull it out (toward you).Bridging Heads: Getting Behind the Panel~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~Once you've opened a bridging head, look around for the test set. This islike the handset to your phone, except it doesn't have a phone attached toit. You will see a whole panel of shit (all of the little cable pairs andlots of little metal screws) which you should push back about an inch. Thenrotate the latch on the top (which is round with a little shaved-off flatsection) downward. Then let go of the panel and it will fall forward. Ifyou didn't see a test set before, there is probably more than one here!There will also be lots of extra wire and metal screws (like the ones on thepanel).What to Take from the Bridging Head~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~Here is what to take from inside the bridging head. Some of it will beneeded later, and some of it is just good to have around. þ Take at least one test set (pick up some for your friends). þ Take the 400 foot rolls of #22 wire usually way in the back of the box. þ Take lots of insulators, binders, clips, and those little metal screws. þ Take the little black box with buttons on it (the line crossover).Stuff With Your Test Set~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~On each door, there is a round metal thing that says "Insert Gently" or"Clamp Gently" or "Do Not Overtighten" or something like that. On it aretwo terminals which you will use with your test set. Hook the ring (-) onyour test set to the "R" terminal on the metal thing, and the tip (+) to theother terminal. Now lift the terminal board (the thing that fell forward).There should be about 20 wire pairs (red and white) on each row (the samething is on the back). Behind the metal disc is a coiled up cord with aspecial connector on the end of it. This is very useful: you don't have tokeep on connecting and disconnecting your test set; you just clamp on theconnector. Now hook the clip onto any terminal pair....Once You're Connected to a Terminal Pair~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~Once you've connected your test set to a terminal pair, you can hearwhatever's going on on that line. If you get a conversation, you can listenin on it, but be careful because they can hear you! A fun thing to do is toplay the operator and tell them that there's an emergency call for someone.If you get data, there's probably a way to hook it up to any computer thathappens to be down there, however there don't seem to be any provisions fordoing this. If you get a dial tone, you can have lots of fun. Call a friendand tell them what you're doing. Call someone long distance that you haven'tseen in ten years. The best thing to do is make harassing calls to theoperator, and when they trace the number and call it back, they'll be callingthe people whose phone you're using! You can listen in on the whole thing.Whose Phone Are You On?!~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~There is something called a Bridging Log in the box which you can try todecipher in order to find out what number you're on. An easier way is to usea special test number. For the 213 NPA, dial 1223; for 213 (GTE areas), dial114; for 408, dial 760; and for 914, dial 990. Sorry, those are all that Ihave, but you may be able to find a chart in the box.The Little Black Box (Line Crossover)~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~This thing is used for testing lines. Hook your test set up to it and thendial any local number. When you have finished dialing, press the button onthe box labeled "ON LINE" and you will hear their conversation. This is aneven easier way to tap a line.Tapping from Your Home: Finding the Dude's Line~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~Look up the number of the dude whose phone you want to tap. Have a friendcall him and give him some long poll (have him say he's from Gallup: mostpeople will stay on the line). Find out exactly what your friend's going tosay. Then go to one of the manholes and clip your test set onto every lineand listen for a second. When you hear your friend, you have the right line.To find your line, take the phone off the hook and leave some music playingnice and loud in your room. Then repeat the above process listening for themusic. Mark the two sets of contacts (the dude's and yours).Tapping from Your Home: Connecting His Line to Yours~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~Take two lengths of thin wire (one red and one white). Loosen the screwholding his red wire and the one holding yours. Take the red wire you cutand wire it from his red-wire screw to yours. Then repeat the process forthe white wires. Now nip the two wires (one red and one white) thatoriginally led to your line. Congratulations! You are now sharing his line!Tapping from Your Home: Listening In~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~I suggest that you do the above stuff with a seperate line, because itcompletely destroys your line. The best thing is to get a speaker phone withthose little red and green lights that tell you if someone's on the line ornot. When the red light goes on, he's on the line. Turn on your speakerphone or pick up your phone and you can hear him! Unfortunately, it worksboth ways: he can hear you. The best thing is to get one of those oldexternal speaker phones with a mute button that STAYS IN when you push it.You will also be able to make calls with his line.Hacking Their Computers~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~EVERYTHING on the computers they leave down there is password protected. Ifyou are able to get in, there is all kinds of stuff in there. Artman [SiC]said that he would be releasing his codes for the Bell System computers soon,however I have never seen this file. Please let me know if you get anycodes.The Tunnels~~~~~~~~~~~Phucked Agent says that there are sometimes tunnels down there. I personallyhave never come accross any, but if you see some, go into them! There isprobably some really cool stuff in there and they are probably passage waysto other rooms. Tell me what you find if you go through one!Leaving the Man Hole~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~Always put everything back very neatly before you leave. Also, never taketoo much stuff at a time. If they notice that a great quantity of stuff isgone, they may be more careful in the future.Please Let Me Know~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~Please let me know how successful your hack of Bell has been. I live in 516and can be reached on many elite boards there.*****************************************************************************Special Thanks to Phucked Agent and Artman [SiC](c) 1992 Vonnegut and PHLiGHT Communications, Inc.Please feel free to distribute this file anywhere and everywhere, as long asit is not altered in any way, other than a change in the archive format. Ifyou know of or hear of any copies of this doc with someone else's name on itplease contact me and I will have them blacklisted immediately. Thank you.*****************************************************************************