The Fixer's 1998 Colored Boxes Review (2025)

The "Blast Box" and "Loud Box" are mouthpiece amplifiers. The BlastBox is intended to make the called party's receiver so loud that it'smore like a loudspeaker. I was called by a few telemarketers using adevice like this back in the early 1980's, so I know it existed once.Also, my local phone company once experimented with extremely loud"You left your phone off the hook, please hang up now" recordings.

The Loud Box is the same thing, only less obnoxious - its function issimply to make your voice more audible to the other party on analogconference calls, long distance calls, and other times when yoursignal might otherwise come through poorly.

These devices were invented back in the old days when a phone callcreated a direct analog connection between the caller and callee,giving almost unlimited dynamic range and thus happily passingextremely loud signals when desired.

With today's digital switches, the voice is digitized, which limitsnot only the frequencies but the volume levels that can be passedthrough the phone system. Below a certain level, the switch willpass no signal at all, and above, it will "clip". "Normal" speechlevels fall between the extremes. On the upside, digital switchingalso eliminates a lot of the problems that would have made alegitimate mic amplifier desirable - today, long distance andconference calls are loud and clear.

If you short a phone line, anyone who calls it will get a busy signal.This is a basic truth and is the only thing the Busy Box text file hasto offer you. It's yet another example of an adolescent effort to getrecognition in the virtual underworld by writing a text file aboutsomething.

The Chartreuse Box is another exercise in lameness. It purports to givefree electric power from the phone line, but the phone line's DC powercan only supply a small current, above which you'll trip circuitbreakers. Never mind that as soon as the phone rings, whatever youhappen to be powering will be fried.

This is not a phreak box. It claims to be able to change traffic lightsby emulating those flashing strobe lights you sometimes see on fireengines. A lot of cities aren't using that system anymore, and I don'tthink that the timing needed is as critical as the textfile claims.

There IS such a thing as a Chrome Box, however. I once rode in a taxicabthat used to be a police car, and the cabbie showed off a button underthe dash that flashed the headlights. INSTANTLY the lights at theintersection we were at changed. If the sensor that changes the lightscan be tripped by flashing headlights, then there's probably no need tobuild an elaborate box.

The Clear Box takes advantage of pay phones where you are supposed todial first and pay when your party answers. The phone mutes themouthpiece until you put in the quarter (or whatever the call costs).However, the earpiece is still active, and while you are fishing in yourpocket for that quarter, you can hear your called party going "Hello?Hello?".

The Clear Box is basically an amplifier and an induction coil thatlets you speak into a microphone, amplifies your voice, and feeds itinto the coil, which then transfers the voice signal directly intothe phone line by electromagnetic induction, bypassing the mutedmicrophone.

The concept is sound, but if you can even find the phone lineitself, it is very well shielded with metal piping that willbeautifully (and inconveniently) absorb any magnetic induction signalyou try to impart through it. And if you had easy enough access to theline to successfully do this, you would likely do better just to bud boxyour calls in the first place.

A version of this file suggests putting the induction coil near theearpiece, and your voice would then enter the phone line that way,presumably by way of crosstalk. The problem with this is that if youused a strong enough induction signal to be heard, you would alsooscillate the earpiece's cone, resulting in loud feedback and thedeafening sound of your own voice. I don't think so.

I strongly suspect that clear boxes really did exist, but the textfiles most of us see about them are based on conjecture and secondhand reports. Perhaps the original clear boxers found anelectromagnetic weak spot in the phone or some point on the linewhere they could inject an electromagnetic signal. Perhaps themouthpiece cutoff relay was near the outside of the phone, in whichcase a strong magnet would have defeated it.

Postpay phones have one more problem that the clear box files nevermentioned. Not all phone calls require you to speak. On a postpayphone you can call up the local sports scores line or whatever andjust listen - the phone might even let you use its keypad! If youlive near a postpay phone, try it some time. Try local, longdistance, even 900 numbers. Try everything till you find a weakness,that's what real phone hackers do!

This isn't a phreak box but it once may have worked. Everythingabout this idea reeks of urban legend, so I'm giving it a lowplausibility rating.

What it is, is you call an 800 number with an extender. From that,you get dialtone and call the same 800 number again. Repeat a fewdozen times until the toll network is filled up with your calls andcrashes.

I really don't think this could ever have worked simply because thetoll free system as a whole will not run out of lines before the 800number you are using runs out of extenders. The 800 number may evenhave only one!

The "DNA Box" is not a box. A few years ago, a group called DNAreleased some cell hacking files and called the series "The DNA Box".Cellphone Hacking is a pretty big subject in itself, and with newtechnologies emerging, it's still a developing set of methods, andbeyond the scope of this series.

The Grab Box is frequently found among phreak box files but it's nota box at all. All it is is a long wire antenna for an AM radio.Everyone who owned a shortwave receiver back in radio's golden ageknew that for long distance reception, longer is better when it comesto wire antennas. And now, someone has come along and called thewire antenna a box.

The Neon Box text file is just instructions for how to connect an audiosource, for example a sound card, directly to the phone line. You riskfrying your audio source if you do it, because most tape recorders/soundcards are not designed to cope with the 90 VAC ringing voltage on theline.

Get an FCC Part 68 interface if you're serious about sending directaudio into the line from an arbitrary source. Or hack up an old phoneand use the mic line as your audio input.

This box has only ever been mentioned in Consumertronics' "Beyond ColorBoxes", which is suprising since that book was compiled from the samepublic domain sources as this file's reference materials. It's possiblethat the Orange Box chapter was added by the publisher (along with whoknows what else?) in order to be able to say that the book wasn't 100percent plagiarized from TAP and text files. Since I don't have thebook, and can't read John Williams' mind, I won't say.

The Orange box is alleged to provide a Caller ID service, withoutsubscribing to Caller ID, without the phone company even needing tooffer it. Now this is very fishy indeed because the terminating switchgenerates the Bell 202 data stream that Caller ID is transmitted on, soif your local switch is too old to support Caller ID, then this box - as described - isjust plain impossible.

But there are some clues given as to where the idea may have come from.First, the article mentions a "special Sony answering machine" that has an OrangeBox built in. Then it mentions that many fax machines can be programmedto respond only to other fax machines that it has been programmed torespond to - without the use of Caller ID to determine which machinesare "on the list" then they call.

A little digging turned up a nifty device that basically acted as apassword front end for your phone line - someone calls your number, andgets a voice prompt asking them to key in their phone number. You wouldthen see the number they keyed on a display and could choose to pick upand talk, hit a "reject" button that hangs up on them, or let them eatsilence. This sounds incredibly lame on the surface but it's useful inthat you could have friends and family enter fictitious numbers that actas passwords - as long as the password holders don't talk to each other,you'd be relatively sure which password holder was on the other end whenthey called.

Protected fax networks work much the same way - most faxes allow theoriginating phone number to be programmed into the header andtransmitted in the initial handshake. I suspect that the "special Sonyanswering machine" might have simply been a password protected model,nothing more.

Caller ID data can only be transmitted when both the originating andterminating switch support it, and to the best of anyone's knowledge,can only be extracted if the receiving party already subscribes toCaller ID, or used *69 after the fact. ANI can be provided if you are alarge WATS subscriber, a telco service provider, or a 911 emergency callcenter. ANI uses a separate line and special telco-supplied hardware,and is quite costly. It will, additionally, work where Caller ID won't,because it's an older service, and one not meant for the mass market asCaller ID is.

This isn't really a box.

Most areas have overlapping toll-free calling zones (A and C), wheretwo areas that may be a long distance call between them have, incommon, a geographical area that is not long distance to either point(B).

So, (A) must pay LD to call (C) and (C) must pay LD to call (A) but(A) and (C) can both call (B) for free, and (B) can call (A) and (C)for free. Sometimes there are one-way exceptions, check your localcalling rate sheet.

Anyway, if someone in (B) forwards their calls to someone in (C) thenanyone in (A) could call (B) for free and get forwarded, toll free,to the person in (C). This is the idea behind the Forwarding PhuckBox.

BBS Operators have used this trick for years to allow more people tocall them toll-free without the high cost of a regional 800 number,but the textfile authors suggest having Call Forwarding turned on foran unwitting mark and then beige boxing the mark's house to set theforwarding destination. Only thing is, if you can spend the gasmoney to drive to (B) everytime you want to call (C) from (A), you'llprobably find it cheaper just to pay Ma Bell for the call instead.

I think a Gold Box would be a better solution, especially oneinstalled in a business where the phone is never used after hours. Aslong as only local (to the box) calls are made, it should last a verylong time. You could do this at work, and call BBSes and ISPsdowntown from the suburbs without having to pay for optional extendedlocal service or LD! And it's only when you start charging LD callsthat eyebrows would get raised in Accounting.

The "Plaid Box" is simply the reversal of the Ring and Tip lines on yourtone phone. The idea here was that Touch Tone phones only worked in acertain polarity, and on rotary lines, the polarity was the reverse ofthat needed to run a tone phone. When you ordered tone service, all thetelco did was reverse the polarity of the line. By reversing the wires,you reverse the polarity yourself.

Since there are no rotary lines anywhere near where I live, and sincetone dialing no longer costs extra, I have no way of testing this "box."Overall, it's obsolete.

The Scarlet Box was written by someone who never tried it. All itdoes is short out the victim's phone line, when its purpose issupposed to be to create line noise. If you use a direct piece ofwire the phone company will be around shortly to fix the problem as adead short is very undesirable to them. If you use a resistor theline will just stay open all the time. Whoop-de-doo.

The Snow Box is not a phreak box, it's a TV transmitter. It belongs inthe Pirate Radio file section of underground boards, and is onlymentioned here because (a) it's called a Box, and (b) it appears sooften among phreak boxes.

Unless you are planning on doing your own version of the Razor and Bladeshow, and have been turned down by your cable community access channel,the Snow Box is of very little use to you as a phreak.

The Power Box is nothing more than stealing electric power bybypassing the meter. The power company WILL notice this, if youdon't kill yourself in the attempt. Remember, the voltage throughthe meter is 220 volts, not 110. It will kill you twice as dead.

The Tron Box is a series of capacitors which supposedly slow themeter using the reactance of the box's circuit. The claim is thatthe more power you use, the slower the meter will run. Ifconstructed and plugged in, in fact a Tron Box will explode.No shit - the capacitors are rated at 50 volts, your line is 120.And they are electrolytic, meaning polarized, meaning unsuitable foruse in an A.C. circuit. Ever see a big filter cap go foom? I have.It's ugly, smelly, messy, unpleasant and LOUD.

Since I wrote the first version of this report, I have received mailfrom two different sources claiming that something like the Tron Boxdoes exist, and that there's a video or news expose which explicitlyshows how it's used, but I have yet to see it. If anyone has this videoI'd appreciate a copy for review in the next revision. With that said,however, the one in the text file will not work.

This is along the same general lines as the Spike Box, but with someadaptation might actually do something. Unlike the Spike Box, this isconnected directly to your victim's phone line. The victim picks up thephone and gets electrocuted. The plans given in text files tell you toconnect a battery but the problem is that phone lines actually operateon a higher voltage than the battery they prescribe. Now, if you changedthis to a power source that kicked out a few dozen kilovolts, you'd havesomething useful.

It amazes me that even today, from time to time, someone still posts aserious question as to whether the Blotto Box works. This started outas a parody years ago, and has been worked into serious textfiles byseveral writers who mostly just want to "see their name in lights".

The Blotto Box purports to cause such grievous damage to the phonecompany that an entire area code would be taken out. This is done bysending high voltage down the line.

There are lots of things wrong with this, not the least of which isthat the outside plant (i.e. all that copper overhead) is riddled withcircuit breakers, fuses, gas discharge devices, etcetera. And thismakes sense, because if a 220 volt Honda generator could bring an areacode to its knees as the Blotto Boxers claim, then the first lightningstrike would destroy the whole system.

Second, the file suggests using a Honda portable generator.Depending on the model you'll either get 110 volts or 220, which you canget from household outlets anyway. Why waste the money to rent agenerator?

And it amazes me that the authors never thought of instead hookingup a Tesla coil, which typically would be over 100 kilovolts - and dueto its high frequency, might actually jump a blown breaker and causedamage a little further down the line than your local loop! HellO!!!The kicker is, someone else did think of this. They called it the"Spike Box". The claim there is that you can electrocute a dialledvictim, burn their house down by phone, etc. Suuuuuure.

If you want to get the phone company's attention, a parcel full ofmanure sent to their security department would be more effective thanblowing out one subscriber loop.

Then there's the Bottle-Nosed Grey Dolphin Box, which is supposed to bemore of a revenge tool against a specific line than a way to k-phuck thephone system. It claims you can generate 500 volts by attaching eightcapacitors (it doesn't give the values of those capacitors) in series toa 9 volt battery. It's also claimed that this box doubles as a Taser.Gimmie a break!c

Let me start by saying that the Mauve Box is pure unfiltered bullshit.It claims to be able to tap distant phone lines by using a "magneticfield" which you generate by running your phone line through a bucket ofmixed soil and iron filings. No way is given as to how to direct it totap a particular line.

Anyone who's taken Grade 7 science knows the Mauve Box is a joke file,and I think a lot of people who would have flunked elementary schoolwould also hold a pretty big suspicion about it. It's that obvious.

The "Paisley Box" is just a parody file. Its file description onBBSes implied that you could sieze a TSPS operator's console, butwhat you actually get is a file which will get you drunk andelectrocuted (and it says so).

This parody is mentioned only because even to this day, the PaisleyBox is still described in file lists everywhere as a serious phreakbox.

This is another joke file. It's supposed to take out your enemy'sphone line and everything around it by simply plugging 120 Volts ACinto it. In fact, the worst that can happen is you'll set off acircuit breaker.

The text file for this box starts off seeming pretty normal, until youget to the part where it tells you what it does. That's where the filetakes a sharp left turn into the Horseshit Zone.

It claims to create a "capacitive disturbance" in the victim's phoneline. By remote, from your line. Turn up the "disturbance" enough andyou can melt the victim's phone or make his body explode.

Probably the most glaring error with this is that even if this werepossible, the same conditions would have to exist on your line too,meaning you'd be lying there dead and/or gibbed while your intendedvictim is still going "Hello? Hello?".

But even that isn't going to happen. The Urine Box is just anotheradolescent grab at notoriety and nothing else.

These "boxes" are pure joke files and don't really claim to do anything.It's kind of a waste of bytes to write anything at all about files likethat but if by doing so I can prevent them from contaminating legitimateH/P archives, then it's worth it.

Click here to download all thebox-related textfiles mentioned in this document.