![]() Obviously the telephone company wanted to keep this information secret, and the phone phreakers wanted to let everyone know how the telephone system works (which is partly what the ongoing struggle between the telephone company and phone phreakers is all about). Naturally, if a technician could perform this feat of magic over the telephone, phone phreakers could do the same-if they only knew the proper codes and procedures to use. With ESS, technicians could alter the switching system remotely over the phone lines. ![]() With the older electromechanical switching systems, a technician had to physically manipulate switches and wires to modify the switching system. Of course, the introduction of ESS brought a whole new set of problems. But eventually these were replaced with newer electronic switching systems (known as ESS), which rendered blue boxes (and the infamous 2600 Hz tone) useless for manipulating the telephone system (although blue boxes may still work on older phone systems outside the United States). With the introduction of personal computers such as the Apple II, phone phreaks started writing computer programs that could emit the proper 2600 Hz tone from their computer's speaker.īlue boxes worked as long as the telephone company relied on their old electromechanical switching systems. For those unable to obtain the original Cap'n Crunch toy whistle, entrepreneurs started selling devices, known as blue boxes, that simply emitted the 2600 Hz tone. Other people soon discovered this secret, and some even developed the ability to whistle a perfect 2600 Hz tone. He found that blowing this toy whistle into his phone's mouthpiece emitted a 2600 Hz tone, which was the exact frequency used to instruct the telephone company's switching systems. ![]() Perhaps the most famous phone phreak was a man nicknamed Captain Crunch because of his accidental discovery of a unique use for a toy whistle found in a box of Cap'n Crunch cereal. If you knew the right signals, the switching systems would blindly obey your orders. Trying to trick a human operator into letting you make a free phone call to Brazil was nearly impossible, but tricking a mindless machine into letting you make free phone calls only required sending signals identical to the phone company's. Such switching systems could handle more calls more efficiently than human operators, but they also opened the door to phone phreaking. When you dialed a number, your telephone sent a signal to the switching equipment, which routed your call to its destination. As more people got phone lines, the phone company began to replace its operators with special switching equipment. Both claim that this early venture was essential to the success of Apple, which they formed in 1976.ĭraper, meanwhile, eventually served time in jail for toll fraud (though he kept programming behind bars), and continued to create major technological innovations, including the first working word processor in the 70’s, and the first effective firewall in the 90’s, despite questionable habits outside of his inventions: in 2017, a report revealed Draper’s sexual harassment teenage fans at technology conventions.In the early days of the phone system, you picked up a telephone and talked to an operator who put your call through. ![]() In fact, the friends’ first business venture together was marketing blue boxes to aspiring phreakers. The blue boxes would have a lasting impact: “I don’t think there would ever have been an Apple Computer had there not been blue-boxing,” Steve Jobs once said in an interview.Īs a college student, Jobs and his friend Steve Wozniak had tracked down Draper to learn all about phone phreaks and early hacking. Later, Draper built devices called “blue boxes” to replicate the whistle tone, and other useful ones.
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