Phone Phreaking : Boxes and Box Plans

Perhaps one of the most dominant trends in the area of Phone Phreaking was the constant creation of "Boxes": Devices of all types and complexity that would do a specific activity, usually illegal or potentially illegal. The first and most famous of these was the Blue Box, which would simulate the tones generated by an Operator from any phone, allowing the user to do an amazing variety of tricks and, occasionally, fraud.

However, this box was quickly surrounded by every box color in the visible spectrum (and some beyond) as phreaks and phone hackers across the country came up with odd new ideas of what to do with phones, and created electronic plans to demonstrate to others how to build them.

No doubt a major contributor to this unique situation was the romance of creating an all-in-one, solid box that would do a magic trick on a phone or phone line, giving the phone phreak a leg up against the phone company. As time went on, this idea of a magic box spread to other arenas, and there are plans for television transmitters and traffic light hacks as well.

To speed browsing, the supposed function of the box is included in italics after the first set of plans for that color. This has nothing to do with the plan's actual success at its goal or whether it even comes close. In the case of multiple plans, no favoritism is being played as to which plans are the first, second, etc. It's just how they came.

Filename	Size	Description of the Textfile
2600hrtz.box	3024	The Poor Man's 2600 Hertz, by Sir Briggs of SCDW
2600stgs.txt	2048	2600 Hertz Single Tone Generator Schematic
acrylic.box	3226	Acrylic Box Plans, by The Pimp
acrylic2.box	4163	Acrylic Box Plans, by The Pimp
allboxes.txt	2826	What do all the Colored Boxes Do? (List of Phone Boxes)
aqua.box	7651	The Aqua Box, by Captain Xerox and The Traveler Disables the dreaded "Lock-In Trace"
aqua2.box	8969	Same as above, but with a SysOp chat broken in the middle of it.
aqua3.box	8432	Aqua Box Plans by Game Warlord, Hyperspace Bandit, Frequency Bandit, and Twilight Phantom
assasin.box	7003	The Assassin Box, by the Grim Reaper
assassin.box	7420	The Assassin Box, by The Grim Reaper Sends a large amount of voltage on a line to maim or kill
assassin.txt	8595	The Assassin Box, by Grim Reaper
at-red.hch	4504	Converting a Tone Dialer into a Red Box by Atomic Teddybear (June 14, 1994)
basboxin.txt	2116	Getting Phree Calls, by the Seker
beagan.box	3749	The Beagan Box by Black Box and Lord Reagan Same as a Beige Box But with 1000 feet of cable attached to it
beige.box	4631	Beige Box Plans, by The Exterminator and Terminal Man Simulates a Lineman's Handset
beige2.box	6222	Beige Box Plans, by The Kez and Jolly Roger
beige3.box	8560	Beige Box Plans, by The Exterminator and Terminal Man Better Formatted
beige4.box	3072	Beige Box Plans, done over by The Kez
beige5.box	3718	The Beige Box Revisited, by The Mercenary
beige6.box	7545	How to make a Genuine Phone Tap, by Jello Biafra
black.box	4460	Black Box Plans Keeps calls free by keeping the phone voltage up
black001.box	2494	Black Box Plans
black2.box	5632	Black Box Plans
black3.box	2389	Black Box Plans, from Captain Tripps
black4.box	3422	The TRUTH about Black Boxing! By Fabulist
blackbox.txt	2986	British Version of the Telephone Black Box
blackmod.txt	2583	Black Box Mods from Jack Plug
blast.box	2048	Blast Box Plans, by Shadow Hawk Attaches an Amplifier to the phone for obnoxiously loud speaking
blast.txt	1368	The Blast Box, and usage
blkbox.txt	4351	How to Make a Black Box
blkbx2.txt	2670	Black Box Plans
blotto.box	6131	Blotto Box Plans, by The Traveller Causes the entire exchange to explode
blue4.phk	2469	Assorted Box Frequencies
blue4.txt	7296	A List of Different Box Types
bluebox.txt	14643	Basic Construction and Operation of the Blue Box, from OSUNY BBS
bluebox1.txt	1072	Box Tones by the Pyro
bobbox.txt	7835	Making the Bob Box (Derivative of the Beige Box)
box-chro.txt	5040	Chrome Box Plans
box-junc.txt	8247	The Art of Junction Box Modeming by Mad Hacker of 616 Includes an ANSI Menu of of a G File Section Beforehand
box-modu.txt	2525	The Modu-Box, by Magnus Adept of Celestial Elite
box-pink.txt	2304	Pink Box Plans
box-plai.txt	1778	Plaid Box Plans
box-purp.txt	1664	How to Construct a Purple Box
box-scar.txt	2383	Scarlet Box Plans from Commodore Systems
box-yell.txt	1456	Yellow Box Plans, by Captain Hook (Feb 3, 1986)
box.dox	7339	The MEEKO Box by Meeko (1994)
boxconf.txt	2606	How to Box your own Conference Calls!
boxer.box	4470	The Joys of Boxing
boxes	15277	A Guide to Making Various Boxes by The Locksmith
boxes.box	1144	A Quick hash List of Box Colors
boxes.nph	83846	Creating Various Phun Fone Toys from Several Sources and Nocturnal Phoenix
boxes.txt	2048	Quick Overview of some Boxes
boxes1.dna	5912	Luke Lists Out All the Phreak Boxes He Knows
boxgen.box	5928	Boxes: General Information
boxing.txt	6639	The Myth of the 2600hz Detector
boxing1.txt	6356	Information on the Process of Blue Boxing by Asure
boxlist.txt	3834	The Underground Box List by the Vandal (August 20, 1987)
boxrussi.box	4731	Boxing to Russia!
boxrwrld.box	10012	Boxing Around the World in 10 Easy Lessons or Less by MOB-Rules
boxtone.txt	1388	Bocing Tones, Courtesy of the ITT Manual, by the Mad Phone Man
boxtones.box	2093	Box Tones, by The Pyro
boxtones.txt	2299	Box Tones, from Atlantis
boxview.box	9123	General Rant on different Box Colors and Purposes
brown-bx.txt	2688	Brown Box Plans, in 80 Columns
brown.box	2767	Brown Box Plans
brown.phk	2917	Brown Box Plans
brown2.box	4096	Brown Box Plans, by The Doc
bud.box	4104	Bud Box Plans, bt Dr. D-Code and The Pimp Similar to a Beige Box (Lineman's Handset) but claiming to be more Portable
busy.box	3052	The Busy Box, by Black Death
bxred.txt	1570	How to Build and Use a Red Box by Master and U.N.
bxsilver.txt	1931	How to Build a Silver Box
cell-5.phk	15825	The DNA Box: Hacking Cellphones #5
cell-6.phk	7808	The DNA Box, Hacking Cellphones #6
charging.box	1995	Lets you know when a call is charging and when it is not under British Telephone
chartreu.box	5487	Chartreuse Box Plans, by Wonko the Sane Taps the Phone Line as a Free Power Source
chartreu.phk	5667	The Chartruese Box (By Wonko the Sane)
cheese.box	1288	Cheese Box Plans Connects two phone lines together so if you call one, you get the other's dial tone
cheese2.box	2376	Making Your Phone into a Cheesebox, by Otho Radix
cheese3.box	975	Cheese Box Plans, by Sir Knight (Similar to cheese.box, but not entirely)
cheesey.phk	1436	Making your phone into a Cheese Box, by Sir Knight
chrimson.txt	2128	Crimson Box Plans
chrome.box	6144	The Chrome Box, by the Outlaw Telecommandos
chrome.toe	6055	The Chrome Box: By Outlaw Telecommandos (Modified to Lowercase) (June 14, 1988)
chromebox.hac	5786	The Chrome Box, by Outlaw Telecommandos
circa-01.txt	12581	The Art of Red Boxing (with an introduction to White Boxing) by Dial Tone (January 24, 1992)
circuit.txt	1766	Some Phreaking Telephone Circuit Plans
clear.box	2429	Clear Box Plans Jerks around "Postpay" Pay Telephones so you can talk to the other party
clear.phk	2379	Introducing, The Clear Box! (2600)
clear.txt	4356	The Clear Box, typed up by The Bit of The Postmen, from 2600
clear001.box	2195	The Art of Clear Boxing
clear002.box	2055	Clear Box Plans
clear2.box	2147	Clear Box Plans, by SYSOP of OSUNY
clear3.box	2202	Clear Box Plans, by MAN-TOOTH
clear4.box	2226	Better formatted Clear Box Plans, by The Bit of The Postmen
clearbx.txt	2259	Clear Box Plans, from 2600, by the SysOp of OSUNY (October 31, 1984)
conbox.txt	3961	Making a Con-Box, by The Ripper
confrnce.txt	4096	The Conference Box, by Madd Max
copper.box	3072	Copper Box Plans, by The Cypher Less an actual box than a process to crash a phone company
crimson.box	2107	Crimson Box Plans Creates a simple Hold Button
current.txt	2428	The Line Current in Sweden, by Provocation of Synthetic Cystims (January 1994)
darkbox.dox	11648	The Dark Box, by Cablecast Operator of The Dark Side Research Group (1990)
darkbox.txt	12392	The Dark Box: A Multi-Purpose Network Manipulation Unit by Cablecast Operator (1987,1990)
day-glo.txt	6921	How to Build and Use a Day-GLo Box, by John F. Kennedy
dayglo.box	6936	How to Build and Use a Dayglo Box, by John F. Kennedy Completely the same as a Beige box, but JFK insists that because he's describing it, it needs a new color
dayglo.txt	7168	How to Build and Use a Day-Glo Box by John F. Kennedy
delier.txt	3113	How to Build and Operate my DeLier Box by Psycho Pyro
dloc.box	3584	The DLOC Box, by The Dark Lords of Chaos Creates a Party Line
foneinfo.phk	28871	Electronic Toll Fraud Devices
germany.txt	22733	The Real Info's About Blue Boxing in Europe and Other Countries Version 1.01 (August 5, 1991)
gldbox.txt	4608	Gold Box Plans by Dr. Revenge
gold.box	3035	Gold Box Plans, by Sir William Similar to a Cheese box but uses an LED to make the phone pick up
gold.phk	3519	Gold Box Plans, Courtesy of Sir William
gold.txt	4460	Gold Box Plans, by Dr. Revenge
goldgood.box	17536	The DARK BOX: Multi-Purpose Network Manipulation Unit by Cablecast 0perator (1987-1990)
grab.box	3072	The GRAB Box, by Shadowspawn Gives a greater range to wireless phones
graybox.txt	17135	Ninja Squirrel's Ninja Grey Box (1986)
green.box	1293	Green Box Plans Forces a Payphone to return money that has been deposited
green.phk	1718	The Green Box
hack.txt	35605	A Collection of Boxing-Related Textfiles by Dysphunxion (1994)
infin.box	1656	Infinity Boxes by Iron Man
jack.box	3584	Jack Box Plans Creates a Silver Box
jolly2.box	21995	Source to Jolly Box, Part I
jolly3.box	30842	Source to Jolly Box, Part II
key.box	4419	The Key Box, by Mr. America
kindsof.box	9820	A Quick Listing of ifferent Kinds of Boxes
laymansb.phk	5451	A Layman's Definition of Boxes
lees_mij	11552	Boxing Around the World in 10 Easy Lessons or Less by Mob Rules (October 30, 1984)
light.box	5119	How to make an In-Use Light from the Night Owl AE (September 24, 1990)
localred.txt	2117	Using Red Boxes on Local Telephone Calls, by The President of POi
loud.box	3662	Loud Box Plans, by Mr. Bill Increases the Volume on your Handset, for Conferences
lunch.box	6943	Making a Lunch Box, by Dr. D-Code A Radio Transmitter
magenta.box	6849	How to Build and Use a Magenta Box, by Street Fighter
magenta2.box	3584	How to Build and Use a Magenta Box, by Street Fighter
mauve.box	5120	How to Build Your Own Mauve Box, by Captain Generic
mega.box	5517	Creating a Megabox
misp67.phk	31106	Electronic Toll Fraud Devices
modu.box	2049	The Modubox, by Magnus Adept Improved Beige Box
modula.box	2514	The Modu-Box, by Magnus Adept
music.box	8102	Creating a Music Box, postings by Aluminum Gerbil
neon.box	1489	Neon Box Plans Creates a second connection on the phone for recording conversations
noise.box	3538	Introducing the Noise Box, by Doctor Dissector Adds an annoying amount of line noise to a telephone line
noisebox.txt	2625	Introducing the Noise Box, by Doctor Dissector of Phortune 500
olive.box	4608	Olive Box Plans
olive2.box	3584	Olive Box Plans
paisley.box	4157	Paisley Box, by The Neon Knights Will take over the whole phone system and do anything you want; you just need a lot of drugs
pandora.box	4096	Pandora's Box, by Dr. Rat Sends a painful noise down the phone
pandora2.txt	3186	The New and Improved Pandora's Box by Gravedigger and Dr. Rat
pandoras.txt	3949	Pandora's Box, by Dr. Rat
party.box	7222	How to Build a Party Box, by Greyhawke of TDK
partybox.txt	7196	The Party Box, created by GreyHawke of TDK
pearl.box	4266	Pearl Box Plans, by Dr. D-Code Allows you to generate a wide amount of tones used by other boxes
pearl2.box	3642	The Advanced Pearl Box by Dispatcher
pearlbox.txt	5193	How to Make a Pearl Box by Dr. D-Code (Edited by Dispatcher)
pearlbx.txt	3968	How to Make a Pearl Box, by Dr. D-Code (1985)
phreak3.box	2647	Box Tones For The Beginner by Damian of SLO
phreak6.hac	4491	The Joy of "Boxing" By the Dragyn
phun2fl9.box	5427	Telephone Controlled Tape Starter by NY hacker
pink.box	3315	How to Build a Pink Box
pink3.box	4194	Pink Box Plans, by Baba O'Riley
pink4.box	3429	Pink Box Plans, "Home Phone Tips"
pinkbox.box	2048	Pink Box Plans
powerbox.box	4045	The Power Box, by The Cursor Jams Power-Reading Equipment to get you Free Electricity
puce.box	1343	The Puce Box, by The Editor
puce.txt	2177	The Puce Box, by The Editor
purple.box	2048	Purple Box Plans, by The Flash Allows you to switch between multiple phone lines easily
purple.phk	2047	How to Construct a Purple Box, from The Flash
purple.txt	1888	How to Construct a Purple Box by the Flash (February 26, 1986)
purple2.box	2304	Purple Box Plans, by the Flash (Abridged)
rainbow.box	3910	The Rainbox Box, by The Dolphin that came from Belmont Blows 120v down the telephone line. Dangerous.
razzbox.box	5120	The Razz Box, by The Razz of Crime Ring G-Files
red.box	1476	Red Boxing with Whistles, by The Researcher
red.txt	8509	List of Red Box Tones and Phone Plans
red2.box	470	Red Box Plans
red2.phk	2251	Red Boxing with Whistles, by The Researcher
red3.phk	4154	Converting a Tone Dialer into a Red Box, by Noah Clayton
red4.box	10949	Red Box Plans, by JR "Bob" Dobbs
red6.box	14632	V-Man's over the top Red Boxing File
red7.box	5305	Galactus #22's Red Box Information
red8.box	7997	Phat Red Boxing, by Bungalow Bill
redbox!.txt	10696	Building a Red Box by J.R. "Bob" Dobbs
redbox.box	1743	How to Build and Use a Red Box by U.N.
redbox.txt	22715	DTMF Generators, White Boxing, and Red Boxing
redbox01.txt	1920	How to use a Red Box, by U.N. and The Master
redbox2.txt	8309	Ideas in Red Boxing: Mercury Switches and Brute Force by Cybernetik (January 1992)
redgreen.box	4924	Red and Green Boxes Revived by Pink Panther
redplans.hac	11188	Building a Red Box by JR Bob Dobbs
redwhisl.box	2251	Red Boxing with Whistles by the Researcher (Uppercase)
redwhislphk.hac	2190	Red Boxing With Whistles by The Researcher
redwhist.box	1848	Red Boxing with Whistles by The Researcher
redwhstl.box	2665	Red Boxing using whistles
remob2.txt	2195	REMOBS by The Wanderjahr
remobs.txt	1649	Remobs DO Exist by David Lightman
ringbusy.txt	3423	The Ring-Busy Device by M0rtaSkuld and the Emporor!
rock.box	6090	Rock Box Plans, by Video Vindicator Channels rock music into telephone handsets
san-red1.txt	4120	Conveting a Tone Dialer into a Red Box, by Sactuary (May 9, 1991)
scarlet.box	2653	Scarlet Box Plans, by The Pinp Scrambles a phone connection to ruin a BBS' phone line
scarlet.phk	1901	Scarlet Box Plans, by The Pimp
scarlet.txt	2688	Scarlet Box Plans by The Pimp
silv_inf.txt	3625	There May Be Gold in that Silver Box, by Doctor Cyber (September 9, 1988)
silver.box	5346	How to Make a Silver Box, by Coruption of Slaves of Pain
silver1.phk	2421	How to build a Silver Box
silver2.box	1945	Silver Box Plans
silver2.phk	5356	How to build a Silver Box
silver2.txt	23743	Making a Silver Box
silver3.box	9935	Silver Box Plans, by Agrajag
silver3.phk	2774	How to make a Portable Silver Box, by The Phone Phantom
silverbx.phk	6388	Building a Silver Box, by E.F. Hutton
silverp.box	3584	How to make a Portable Silver Box by The Phone Phantom
slug.box	3456	Making a Slug Box (May 14, 1990)
snow.box	6217	Snow Box Plans, by Outlaw Telecommandos Television Transmitter
somesilv.txt	9670	White Box Plans from Lunatic Laboratories and Tharrys Rainbow
soundb.box	4825	How to Make a Soundblaster Box, by ShadowHawk Some 1994 nerd wonders why the neon box guy didn't use a soundblaster
spec_ops.txt	14907	How to Reach Operators That Can only be Reached via a Blue Box
sssb.txt	3040	Solid State Silver Boxes by Number Six
static.box	3434	The Static Box, by The Usurper and The Raver
static.phk	3774	The Static Box, by The Usurper and The Raver
switch.box	6607	Switchbox Plans, by Autopsy Saw
switch2.box	6365	Switch Box Plans, by the Wizard of Oz
switch3.box	645	Building a Three-Way Phone
swordbox.txt	4736	The Sword Box, by the Grim Reaper of STS (July 13, 1988)
tan.box	3970	The Tan Box, Written by Samauri Cat and Tarkin Darklighter
tan2.box	2875	Tan Box Plans Duplicate color; acts as a ringer
tanger.box	1356	The Tangerine Box, by Happy Harley Allows you to tap calls on the phone without a tell-tale click
tanger.txt	2190	The Tangerine Box, by Happy Harley
tap.box	4800	The Tap Box Tap Phone Conversations
texts	5778	The Chrome Box by Modem Free Earth and Outlaw Telecommandos (June 14, 1988)
tn.box	1687	The How to Series: The Tron Box
tolldevs.txt	26503	Electronic Toll Fraud Devices (An Overview)
tollfra.hac	9969	Investigation and Prosecution of Electronic Toll Fraud Devices (Bell Telephone Pamphlet)
tollfrau.phk	10184	Electronic Toll Fraud Devices, uploaded by Lex Luthor
tones.txt	1338	Telco Tones by Compy
tron2.box	1723	The Tron Box, by Cap'n Crunch
tron3.box	2127	Tron Box Plans
tronbox.txt	1873	How to Build a Tron box by Pure Evil
tronrevi.phk	2231	The Tron Box
tvcable.box	5845	TV Cable Box, by Outlaw Telecommandos Descrambles scrambled Cable
urine.box	4141	Urine Box Plans Kills the person on the other side of the line
uruguay.txt	536	Boxing Over Uruguay
various.box	17647	A collection of various Box plans
violet.box	5120	Violet Box Plans, by The Kez
walkman.txt	1620	Redboxing with Walkmans by Gravediffer and Cyber for Tf
white.box	3594	White Box Plans Converts a touch tone keypad into a portable unit
white.txt	3584	White Box Plans, by Devil Guard and the Audiovisual Room
white2.box	4096	White Box Plans, by The Mystic
white3.box	3584	White Box Plans
white4.box	3827	White Box Plans, by Sirius Cybernetic BBS
white5.box	2990	White Box Plans, from Wargames Magazine
worldbox.phk	9090	Boxing Around the World in 10 Easy Lessons or Less by Mob Rules (October 30, 1984)
worldbox.txt	10240	Boxing Around the World in 10 Easy Lessons or Less by Mob Rules for P-80 Systems, October 30, 1984
x-gold.txt	4280	Gold Box Plans by The X Man, Mr. Pyro, Mr. Sinister, and Chris Jones, July 12, 1993
x.txt	2211	X-Box: A Phone Connector, by Langly
yellow.box	1431	Building a Yellow Box, by Captain Hook
yellow.txt	1876	Yellow Box Plans By Captain Hook, Feb 3, 1986
yellow1.box	2048	Building a Yellow Box, by Captain Hook
zap.b0x	4279	Zap Box Plans from Kilgore Trout Causes Damage to the Other Phone

There are 255 files for a total of 1,454,966 bytes.

A Word about the Rampant Duplication in this Section:

There's a lot of similar files in this section: The reason being that Box Plans were a de-facto requirement for you to have even a semi-decent Phreaking/Hacking BBS in the 1980's. You started your BBS, you went out and grabbed Boxing textfiles from AE Lines or long-distance BBSes, and you put them all up, under a special phreaking files section. With this amount of intensity came people who would modify the files to look like they wrote them, or reformatted the files and took credit for the reformatting. There's many, many different variations and I believe the variations represent a bit of history in themselves.