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                           BAH - Issue #008
    ÚÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄ¿
    ³ Title: AT&T Conferences Explained                Author: Stone    ³
    ³ Date: 06-05-95                                                    ³
    ³                             *BAH*                                 ³
    ÀÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÙ

  All text included in BAH issues is for educational purposes only. In no
  way do we at BAH endorse whatever actions described in our text files. If
  AT&T comes and gets you, don't come crying to us.
                                                [BAH]
                           
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Conferences. Many of us have been on them, legitimate or illegitimate. I've
never heard of anyone actually PAYING for a conference, but I suppose
people do. I still do not know the rates. I've heard everything from 11
cents to 39 cents per minute per port.


Conference operators:

Many AT&T conference operators are stupid, and forget to do things. One of
the standard data an operator is supposed to ask is "What company is this
for?" They never ask you that. They're usually half asleep. I once had to
remind an operator (after she gave me the number and PINs) to verify that I
was actually at the number I said.


Setting up a conference:

To set up an illegitimate conference, all you need is a COCOT. I'm not
going to explain what a COCOT is, I'm just going to say that it's a
non-Bell phone. It has to allow incoming calls. One company that makes such
phones is PTC, but there are hundereds more. Find a phone.

Call. The number for setting up the conference is 1-800-232-1234. (no, it's
not a k0de, don't shit in your pants, this tfile is legal.) You usually
should get an operator right away, because this service is rarely used
anymore.

The operator doesn't have a standard order of the questions she asks, but
these are those:

"What time would you want this conference set up for?" Give the time.
They'll ask for duration. Say whatever you want. Don't say 5 days. This
will raise suspicion. All conferences auto-extend to 12:45 am on whatever
time zone they were set up for, so don't worry.
(Note: I have recently been on a conference that only autoextended until
11:00 pm. Now, we didn't recive a warning, and there's ALWAYS a warning.)
Give the operator the time zone, or she'll ask you. Sometimes she won't,
and that will raise hell for out-of-timezone callers.

"How many ports do you want this set up for?" Again, don't say, like 500.
You can't hear much with more than fifteen people on a conference anyway.
I've never been in a situation where we ran out of ports, so I don't know
what happens.

"What is your name?" Tell them. Not your real one. Actually, you probably
could. Once AT&T finds out that a conference is illegitimate, they
automatically assume the name is fake. Or so I hear.

"What is your phone number?" Sometimes paired with the previous question.
Give it to them. The pay phone's number. Remember, it must be able to
accept incoming calls.

"What is your company name?" This is optional. Well, they're SUPPOSED to
ask this, but usually they don't. Make up something.

"May I call you back at that number?" Again, optional. Let them call you.
Answer. Get the PIN. Have fun. You will get two PINs, one for the host and
one for the participants.

"Is this a dial-in or a operator-dialed conference?" This is always asked.
All references in this file are towards dial-in conferences. Want to
experiment with operator-dialed? If you do, write a BAH for it!

When you call, you will sometimes hear a high-pitched noise before you
hear:
"Welcome to the AT&T Teleconference Service. Please enter your access
code."
Enter it. You're in a conference.

It has been rumored that AT&T is using a trap method to detect illegitimate
conference hosts. This is, because, if AT&T finds out that a conference is
illegal before it starts, they have an advantage. And a choice. They can
let everyone call in, and let them start talking. They can get the ANI and
ID of all the callers. Then they can try billing the callers seperately,
which is an insane act. It takes forever. Then, the people who just have
the normal PINs can just say that they found it on IRC or something. It's
MUCH easier to find out who actually set up the conference. The person who
logs on as the host is the person who set it up, correct? So, they just
activate the conference for the host PIN only. They get the host's ANI,
track him down, and there you go. It's a hell of a lot harder to explain
that someone just posted the HOST pin on IRC. Although, AT&T may believe
it.

This method seems to be illustrated with a very recent episode in which a
situation identical to the one explained (trapping the host) was presented.
The results are yet unclear.


Well, have fun. Don't get caught. If anyone has more info, it would be
greatly appreciated. Email cstone@free.org.

Note: Expect a new email address for BAH soon, one just for BAH.


-stone
06/05
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