9 replies to this topic

[zx6r]

how lame am i, replying to myself

well, i figured that when u place a call and it goes through your CO, your CO cuts off any audio about 2000 Hz or somthing, so u cant send hang ups and so on. But your CO can send them. But how does your CO know when you have Hung Up.?

[unity]

Man, its not so bad replying to your own posts.

Well.. falme me if i'm wrong, but when you say "off-band" do you mean out-of-band? I dont think that telco's use in-band signalling any more. At least, not with regular telephone service.

[Captain B]

OOB (Out Of Band) signalling is definitely (and unfortunately) what we have nowadays with SS7 (Siganlling System 7). Blue Boxing, much like red boxing, Isn't working as well as it once did anymore. Hence, that's why when people blue box, they do it off of another country's slightly more dated COs/switches and telco equipment. Think about it, a lot of the better shhtuff that once could be done (like black boxing also) tends to only be able to be done on older telco technology. For instance, your local telco would need to be running the older electromechanical equipment, such as crossbar switching, to be able to black box. Red boxing, obviously, can't be done on COCOTS, since it uses inside billing in the payphone itself, rather than using ACTS back at the CO to recognize the single pulse, 2 pulses, 5 pulses of the nickels, dimes, and quarters. And, with blue boxing, It's no longer a matter of using only 2600Hz anymore, It's now a combo of a 2400/2600Hz tones. They changed it like that, so as to reduce the chance of "talk off" (Meaning, calls being dropped due to the switch hearing particularly high pitched voices talking). Beisides this 2400/2600hz combo, something called a "guard tone" of some other freq. is needed to be sent down the line. (Or, so I've heard, anywayz). And, this "guard tone" also is different from one country's telco equipment to the next. (Once again, so I've heard). Most everything is dual tones anymore. The coin tones put out by payphones running under ACTS, even your standard dial tone is 2 tones heard together. 440Hz is one of them, I can't remember the other right now. I can understand the need for dual tones for everything that involves signalling, but I don't see why they bother sending 2 tones down the line for just a basic dial tone. I dunno.

[zx6r]

Signaling System 7:

Type Hz On Off
------------------------------------------------------
Dial Tone 350 & 400 --- ---
Busy Signal 480 & 620 0.5 0.5
Toll Congestion 480 & 620 0.2 0.3
Ringback (Normal) 440 & 480 2.0 4.0
Ringback (PBX) 440 & 480 1.5 4.5
Reorder (Local) 480 & 620 3.0 2.0
Invalid Number 200 & 400
Hang Up Warning 1400 & 2060 0.1 0.1
Hang Up 2450 & 2600 --- ---

Captian B, Im guessing when you state "Guard Tone" you mean the "Hang Up Warning". I can generate these tones, but every time i push them down the line (even directly, ie: not through mouth peice) i get nuffin, it doesn't hang up or anything, but i can dial numbers through my mouth peice using dtmf signals. Would there be a specific reason why my hang up tones and warning isn't working?

[White_Raven]

Its my understanding (And I may be wrong, so bear with me) That AU phone systems uses a slightly different switching set then american phone lines due to there proximity and history with the UK (AU was started by them, or so Im told..), and thus the tones are different.. since your a aussie (and I use that word with fondness as I have many AU friends) you may be able to shed some light on that, I for one would be interested in learning more abuut the possable difference; All I can remember was from
a pic of the world telecomm system I once had when I worked for a phone compony.. the lines for that part of the world where a different color and the lables where different, was so long ago I cant remember much

[Captain B]

This is true. And also, there are voltage/current differences from one country's phone network to the next as well. In fact, in the UK, even the ringing pattern is different than our American one. (Instead of our 1 long ring, pause, repeat, the UK use 2 fast rings, pause, repeat). And, why in God's name does the UK, (as well as some other countires) prefer to call the pound key the "hash" key, and the star key the "asterisk"? And, as for "guard tones", I wouldn't swear to it, but I think that tone is sent right after the initial 2400/2600 blue box tone, to be able to seize a line. Even if I am wrong on that, one thing I know for sure is that the proper guard tone varies from country to country. So, perhaps that could be part of your prob. Especially since I didn't even know that you were in "the land down under". That reminds me, I sure wish the band Men at Work would get back together. *Sigh*. Long live the sounds of the 80's! Okay, okay, you can now tell me, "Captain, get up to date with the times. Listen to Godsmack, Drowning Pool, Puddle of Mud, Mudvayne, Linkin Park, Sum 41, Korn, Papa Roach, Slipknot, ICP, and other more up to date shhtuff". Heh, heh.

[ntheory]

Slipknot is worth listening to.

On the other hand Linkin Park, Papa Roach, and Sum 41 can be left for dead.

[Captain B]

Nah! Give me either the sound of the 80's, or Weird Al Yankovic. Speaking of which, his latest album, "Poodle Hat" recently came out, if anyone here didn't already know, and happens to be interested.

[HoppingGoblin]

Interested in modern BlueBoxing? Let me know and give me your e-mail address or contact me on AIM. I've archived the "SARTS BlueBoxing Journal" by Cuebiz's dog SARTS and can send it to you zipped. Keep in mind it'll be a 1.8 MB attachment.