=------------------------------------------------------------------= |Vol. 1 No. 2 Telephone Free Planet Issue 2| |Made by foreigners! tfp.nothing.org Always overpriced!| |Dial 10-TFP and lose! November 11, 1997 Happy Veterans' Day!| =------------------------------------------------------------------= =-------------------------"Yo quiero TFP" -Chihuahua-------------------------= =--TFP02------------Table des Matieres------------TFP02--= | Zero to phreak in 5 minutes..................KungFuFox | | The NorTel Millenium.......................mastermiind | | Evil phone tricks for smart monkeys............overdub | | Color coding of pairs and binders............KungFuFox | | What to do when your mom finds your beigebox...Dublisk | =----------TFP goodies for extra special phreaks---------= | Telco News...................................KungFuFox | | Storytime with TFP..........Whoever bothered to submit | =--------------------------------------------------------= "Attorney General Janet Reno announced this week that she will fine Microsoft $1 million per day for attempting to monopolize access to the internet. This means that Microsoft CEO Bill Gates will go broke just 10 years after the earth crashes into the sun." -Norm MacDonald "I'm sure it would be good if it was teaching me something." -Discore, commenting on TFP01 =----------------------------------------------------------------------------= =-------------------------------------------= | Telephone Free Planet - Contacts and crap | =-------------------------------------------= Alpha dog : KungFuFox, mazer@cycat.com <-send me hatemail! Beta dog : Keystroke, keystroke@thepentagon.com <-say hi! TFP Email : tfp@tfp.nothing.org <-send us stuff! TFP Site : tfp.nothing.org <-our real short new url Cult follower weirdos : digipimp, AlienPhreak, BC219, weatherman, REality, Scud-O, shoelace, Dublisk, ec|ipse, overdub, Allah7, and Discore [we got more!] Submissions of articles, quotes, emails, logs, phone conversations, news articles, and general crap are encouraged. tfp@tfp.nothing.org needs you! WARNING: This document is to be read for entertainment purposes only. TFP and its writers will not be held liable for your actions. If you want to reprint any portion of this document, just email tfp@tfp.nothing.org and ask. =----------------------------------------------------------------------------= Welcome to the second uninformative, lame, stupid, and useless issue of TFP! I'm KungFuFox, and I'll be your guide through yet another journey into phones. Hopefully you'll learn SOMETHING this time around, instead of just thinking "boy this sucks". If you didn't notice, we changed URLs, thanks to the help of our friends at nothing.org. That means our email also changed, so make a note of the new address that we've subliminally inserted at various points in the issue. As was true in last issue, we still want you to work real hard and stay in school so you can write us material to save KFF from writing everything. This issue is coming out just eleven days after TFP01, if you didn't notice. It's also over 20k smaller than the first issue. This is out of choice rather than necessity, since I'd much rather read something smaller and more often than larger and less often. About the eleven days thing, don't assume we're gonna make this mistake again. It could be months between issues, or maybe just a few hours. I don't know when TFP03 will be out. Hell, it might not ever come out. Just watch and see. Buncha anxious bastards. I've been put under some pressure by a few people to get better HTML and graphics for the site. Though I did major in HTML and graphics, I'm probably not the best (ok, maybe I am) but just to see how things may turn out, I'm sponsoring a cheesy HTML and graphics contest. Submissions of TFP themed HTML and graphics created with the intent of replacing those on our site at tfp.nothing.org will be accepted at tfp@tfp.nothing.org until TFP03 is released. The winner will be announced in that issue unless some horrible accident prevents it, or TFP03 doesn't come out or something. The best submission will be judged the winner. Get crackin'! ((__)) (@@) foNekOw sez... (o__o) "TFP sucks!" U =----------------------------------------------------------------------------= =------------------------------------------------------= | Zero to phreak in 5 minutes - a satire, by KungFuFox | =------------------------------------------------------= Welcome to the wonderful world of phones! Do you wanna make phonecalls for free?! Do you wanna have lotsa fun at the expense of somebody else?! Do you wanna have a beigebox or a redbox, but don't even know what they are?! Read on k-rad kiddies! Lets start off with some basics, the kinda info you need to become a real phreak like the big boys! You gotta learn how to get free phonecalls! I'll tell you about a few simple tools and techniques, starting with the beigebox. I know you don't know what that is, it doesn't matter, I'll tell you how it works! Basically you get a phone, and you plug it into somebody else's house instead of yours! Don't have a phone? No problem! My poor man's beigebox works just as well, and all you need to 'make' one is a rock! Either one from your home or from the location of your victim is fine. Get to the victim's place, preferrably at night, and find a window to a room you think has a good chance of having a phone in it. Chuck the rock at the window. Make sure you're not standing right next to the window when you do this, because it's liable to break, assuming you don't have two broken arms to throw rocks with. If you can find a neighborhood filled with deaf people, or a slum where people hear windows breaking regularly, this phreaking technique is much more likely to work. Ok, now that the window is sufficiently removed, you need to get in there. Hopefully you picked a window that wasn't 10 feet off the ground. Climb on in there, making sure you don't peel the skin off your body, and look for a phone. Though you may be tempted, it isn't a good idea to turn on the lights when you start looking for that phone, obviously because turning on the lights is a lot more suspicious than breaking a window. Now for the complicated part. Once you've located the phone, you have to use a special technique to use it, because ma bell designed phones so you can't beige box with them at normal phone jacks. Rip the phone out of the wall, so that the plug on the end of the phone cord becomes separated from the cord. Bite off the plastic cover on the cord, and you'll see 2 or 4 wires inside it. You'll be dealing with the red and green wires. If the wires aren't colored, it's the middle two. Strip away a couple inches of the insulation from those two wires. Now your beigebox is prepared for use. The only thing left to do is find a place to beige from. If the building you used your geolocial key to get into has a basement, you'll probably wanna go down there and look around for a plastic box mounted on a wall. It'll probably have a phone company insignia on it, most likely a generic bell shaped drawing, and a name with the word "bell" in it. Other possible names are "uswest", "ameritech", "nynex", or "gte". If this plastic box thing isn't in the basement, look around outside for it. It'll be on an outside wall somewhere around building. Once you find it, bash it good with your beigebox until it breaks open. You can use your feet and hands if you like. You could even use the rock you removed that window with if you can find it. Just make sure you bash the cover off that plastic box. Hopefully after all this work you'll be greeted with some screws arranged in a strange geometric pattern. Hold the beigebox's handset up to your ear so you can hear it if it gets a dialtone, and start touching the two beigebox wires to different screws. After a few minutes if you don't have a dialtone, you're either retarded or the phoneline is disconnected. In the latter case, you'll need to goto another building, find another plastic box with a phone company insignia on it, and try the same procedure there. If you're just retarded, bash yourself in the head with the beigebox. It's probably angry at you anyway, for ripping it out of the wall. Another good way to make free phonecalls, and become an elite phreak, is to redbox. Don't know what a redbox is either? No sweat! I'll tell you how to get free calls just like a redbox does, but without the time consuming construction! First things first, you need to find a payphone. Any payphone will do, so long as it works. Don't believe any of the undercover telco people on irc that may tell you redboxes don't work. They do! Once you've found yourself a payphone, you need to get some money to use it. Ha! I didn't mean your own money! That wouldn't be free! My first technique is something I'll call begging. To beg successfully, you'll need to look shabby. Don't shave if you're old enough that shaving matters, and don't comb your hair or whatever it is you normally do to it. Also, wearing your worst clothes, slept in the night before your first redboxing day, is a good idea. Bring along a disposable cup; you can find one on the way if you need to, and go to that payphone. Now, when people walk by it, or walk up to use it, they're probably gonna have some change. Just sit there looking real pathetic and people are bound to start dropping as few coins as they can into your cup. Don't worry, even though they're cheapasses, eventually those small donations to your personal charity will add up. Once you've got like five bucks, you can start making calls, and they won't have cost you any money at all! My second technique, which is a much more effective method of obtaining funds, is something I like to call mugging. This will take some patience though, for you need to find the weakest person possible before attacking. Preferrably you should find somebody who weighs a lot less than you do. Once you've found your anonymous donor, you may either knock them down, or simply grab them. Weapons such as guns and knives are excellent when implimented properly, to terrify your victim into submitting to your demands for money. Once you've acquired the funds that you feel are necessary to support your need to make free phonecalls, and become a better phreak, you may let them go, and get yourself to a phone, to start using that money. Ok now that you've acquired a couple tricks of the trade, get your lazy ass out there and phreak! =----------------------------------------------------------------------------= =-------------------------------------------------------------------= | NorTel Millenium: The payphone for the next 1000 years - by miind | =-------------------------------------------------------------------= Those NorTel Milleniums that are being bought in hordes by the RBOCs and put up everywhere are really a work of art. At first look, they might appear to be a bad idea in high vandalism areas, but they are actually very tough. The bodies are built with 1/4" reinforced steel, and they employ a 2-way dual locking system. First of all, the coin box and the logic box are locked seperately. Secondly, they use a 4-pin Medeco(tm) lock with a notched T-Bit bolt. The 4-Pin Medeco lock for the coin box is on the lower right side of the phone. This must be unlocked, before the T-Bit located on the front of the coin box can be turned to open the box. The 4-Pin Medeco lock for the logic box is on the upper left side of the phone. As with the coin box lock, this must be unlocked before the T-Bit which is also located on the upper left side of the phone can be turned. Once this is done, the logic box opens from top to bottom. That is, the part of the phone that includes the card reader, handset, keypad, display, and RBOC logo, flips down. The hinge is located just under the card reader. Oh, a little note about the Medeco locks. Only 4 pins, you say?!? Well you can almost forget about trying to pick them. Medeco locks are special, in that not only must the pins be raised a certain amount, but they must also be rotated a certain amount. This rotation can be clockwise or anti-clockwise. And also, both Medeco locks are keyed differently for security purposes. How these phones operate is quite unusual. The days of ACTS and its variants are gone. These new breed of phones operate on the COCOT principal. I sometimes call them BOCOTs. The phone itself is responsible for billing. Not only for local calls, but for long distance and overseas calling as well. When you pick up the handset on a Millenium and hear a "dial tone", it is not really a dial tone you are hearing. It is mearly a fake dial tone that the phone produces. After dialing your number, the phone then decides on what sort of call it is. Is it local, long distance, or overseas. If it is a local call, then a synthesized voice asks for the $0.25 and the display also prompts for the money. Once the money is in, the phone picks up the real line that it is connected to, and then re-dials the number that you entered into its memory. The call then goes on as normal. If it is a long distance call, the phone checks it's rate table for the current rate based on time of day, day of week, and mileage to destination CO. It then asks for the appropriate amount of money and continues as with a local call. The same goes for an overseas call. Now, stuff gets a little trickier if you plan to use a card to bill the call. Milleniums are equipped with both a magnetic strip reader AND a smart card reader. However, not all RBOCs have issued smart cards. Bell Canada (Ontario/Quebec) has for sure, but as for the others, I'm not sure. I do know that BC Tel doesn't have a smart card planned until mid '98, at the least. Anyways, after you dial your number, you are asked to put in your money or enter your card into the slot. If you opt to enter your card into the slot, the phone reads in your card data. It then takes the real line that it is connected to off-hook and proceeds to call it's predetermined credit card authorization center. After authorizing your card, it hangs up, then re-seizes the line and proceeds to dial the number that you have entered into its memory. A word about authorization. In Canada, where Stentor owns DataPac AND the RBOCs, it is possible to use real-time credit card authorization even for a $0.25 call. That means that your card better be valid, or it will fail authorization. However, in the USA, where de-regulation has been widespread, an authorization costs about $0.50 for the use of a public switched network such as telenet. It doesn't make sense to spend this much money to authorize a call that is only going to cost the customer an average of $2.30 for the first minute, and about $0.60 for each additional minute. At least that is the way the RBOCs in the USA think. Because of this, credit card authorization is not in real time. Therefore, if you have a magnetic strip writer, you could write a valid Visa number to an old strip, and use it in a phone to call anywhere in the world for free, and without the annoying prompt for more money every minute. I have tried this in Seattle (USWest) on one of their Milleniums and it worked fine. However, in Canada, it won't work. The card number that you write to the card MUST be a REAL ISSUED number. Of course, these aren't TOO hard to come by, now are they? There are lots of more things to be learned about these new Milleniums for me and the rest of us, so get hacking! These are THE phones that will take us into the next millenium. There are things to be done with the keypad, but I don't know enough to write about that at the present time. A note about boxing Milleniums: Well, they come in a box. The box says "Millenium, The Power Within". The box also has a few other markings like the serial number and warranty date and the like, but other than that, it's just a plain old cardboard box. As far as "boxing" a Millenium, Red Boxes are out because ACTS isn't used. Magenta Box is out, because the microphone isn't being muted to deter Red Boxing. White Box is out because when you initially dial the number on the keypad, it is NOT the DTMF tones that are being stored, but rather the actual keystrokes. Playing DTMF tones via a White Box into the mic to dial a number won't work because the phone isn't listening to the tones, just waiting for electrical pulses from the keypad. A buttset (Beige Box, if you REALLY want to call it a "box") will work if you can find the pair either in a SAC, or from the drop above or below the phone, but hey, that works on ALL payphones. I can't really think of any other conventional "colour boxes" that would be any use on a Millenium though. =----------------------------------------------------------------------------= =-------------------------------------------------------------------------= | Evil no-brainer phone tricks for phreaks and smart monkeys - by overdub | =-------------------------------------------------------------------------= Direct Dial Cab Phones --------------------- Have you ever been to the mall and seen those phones that you pick up and they automatically forward you to the local cab company? If so, you're in luck. This means free calls at your sleazy local cab company's expense... Payback time for when they took you the long way home to charge you extra. You need: tone dialer buddy (just easier) Steps: 1: Go to the cab phone. 2: Now get your buddy to slip his finger on the button behind the receiver so when you lift it, it'll still be hung up. 3: Whip out your trusty rat shak tone dialer and hold down the first digit and get your buddy to let go of the button. The tone should be in before the phone has even thought about dialing the cab place. 4: Just dial the rest of the pone number as you would like and you should be connected courtesy of your sleazy local cab co. Note: Use your buddy for lookout in case one of those lame security guards comes after you ;] Phone Jack Fun ----------------- Do you ever get pissed at your parents or anyone else who has a phone jack or box you have access to? It doesn't really matter if you already have access, since it's not too hard to get access. Just look around your victim's dwelling until you find their TNI box. If you can't find it outside, you might have to do one of those new fangled home invasions it cuz it'll be in their basement. Once you DO have access, you can use the info below to mess up your victim's lives pretty bad. Phone Jack Fun: 1: Locate phone jack. 2: Rip the faceplate/cover off the jack. 2: Rip out all the wires. 3: Put the faceplate/cover back where it was. 4: Now no one will be able to call in on or out on that line. (If you can't do this one, I don't know how you learned to read) (stupid.) If you're a pacifist or you don't like ripping wires out of stuff you can try a less physically demanding evil scheme called... Making their phone bill real high n stuff: 1: Get phone. 2: Plug phone into victim's line. 3: Call $25 900 BBS access number, wait 15 seconds, and hang up. 4: Call it back 100 times. 5: Go get a soda. 6: Call it back 900 more times. (Yeah, it's gonna take you about 4 hours to do this, but it's gonna cost your friendy friend $25000, right mathboy?) 7: Call a buncha plummers, painters, and service people and tell 'em to come to your victim's house. 8: Call every local service you can think of, along with every magazine, newspaper, and mail order product company in your phonebook, and order stuff. 9: Call back the service/delivery type numbers and tell 'em you won't be home but to do whatever you ordered them to do when they get there. Saying you're not going to be home means "please, rob us" to the real sly businessman types. 10: Run far far away. =----------------------------------------------------------------------------= =--------------------------------------------------------------------------= | Color coding of pairs and binders - one more crappy article by KungFuFox | =--------------------------------------------------------------------------= The most common telephone connection requires only 2 wires, known as a "pair". One of these wires is known as the ring, and is most commonly red. The other wire is known as the tip, and is most commonly green. They should be familiar to you, since you beige with them. These wires enter your home through what is known as a station cable, consisting of 2 pairs of wires, one pair being red/green, the other black/yellow. The red and yellow wires are known as 'ring' wires, and the green and black ones known as 'tip' wires. The station cable connects your home to what is known as a binding post. In layman's terms, its a greenish or greyish metal box somewhere in your yard that either has a sticker that says "call before you dig" on it, or it'll be near a telephone pole (the big wooden thing you tie your dog to). This binding post in turn is connected to what is known as a binder cable. The binder cable is buried underground in areas with "call before you dig" signs on the binding posts. In areas with telephone poles, this cable is usually located closer to the ground on the pole than any of the other cables. The binder cable contains up to 25 pairs of wire, 1 pair equalling 1 line. Your line(s) split from this cable at the binding post, and within this post are access terminals. The ring (red wire) is usually located on the right terminal. An easy way to remember this is with the "three r's" rule: red right ring. Thusly, the tip (green wire) is connected to the left terminal. You may access these terminals with a beigebox and will recieve the same connection to the phone network as you would from within the house that the line belongs to, and hence gain ability to prank a certain President with little regard for possible repercussions. The wire pairs within the binder cable are color coded with 10 different colors in a specific pattern of combinations so that they may be identified by linemen without the hassle of uprooting your neighborhood to trace the cable all the way to the house it goes to. Below is a description of the colors, and a table showing what colors represent which pair and group number within the binder. Primary colors: blue [BLU], orange [ORG], green [GRN], brown [BRN], and slate [SLT] (gray) Secondary colors: white [WHT], red [RED], black [BLK], yellow [YEL], and violet [VLT] (purple) Tip (T) is mostly secondary color with marks of primary color (ex: WHT/BLU) Ring (R) is mostly primary color with marks of secondary color (ex: BLU/WHT) Pairs are listed by group number at the left of the chart and by pair number directly to the left of the color coding. These pairs are marked in groups of 5. Each pair within each group uses a different primary color and each group uses a different secondary color. To aid in your deciphering, I'll provide an explanation with some examples. "Grp1" signifies that the information to the right of it is for pairs in group 1. "T" is short for "tip". "R" is short for "ring". "#01" identifies the color code to the right of it as belonging to pair 1. "WHT/ORG" means the wire in question is colored mostly with white but has orange marks. "BLU/WHT" means the wire in question is colored mostly with blue but has white marks. ----------------------------------------------------------------------------- Grp1 T: #01 WHT/BLU | #02 WHT/ORG | #03 WHT/GRN | #04 WHT/BRN | #05 WHT/SLT | Grp1 R: #01 BLU/WHT | #02 ORG/WHT | #03 GRN/WHT | #04 BRN/WHT | #05 SLT/WHT | ----------------------------------------------------------------------------- Grp2 T: #06 RED/BLU | #07 RED/ORG | #08 RED/GRN | #09 RED/BRN | #10 RED/SLT | Grp2 R: #06 BLU/RED | #07 ORG/RED | #08 GRN/RED | #09 BRN/RED | #10 SLT/RED | ----------------------------------------------------------------------------- Grp3 T: #11 BLK/BLU | #12 BLK/ORG | #13 BLK/GRN | #14 BLK/BRN | #15 BLK/SLT | Grp3 R: #11 BLU/BLK | #12 ORG/BLK | #13 GRN/BLK | #14 BRN/BLK | #15 SLT/BLK | ----------------------------------------------------------------------------- Grp4 T: #16 YEL/BLU | #17 YEL/ORG | #18 YEL/GRN | #19 YEL/BRN | #20 YEL/SLT | Grp4 R: #16 BLU/YEL | #17 ORG/YEL | #18 GRN/YEL | #19 BRN/YEL | #20 SLT/YEL | ----------------------------------------------------------------------------- Grp5 T: #21 VLT/BLU | #22 VLT/ORG | #23 VLT/GRN | #24 VLT/BRN | #25 VLT/SLT | Grp5 R: #21 BLU/VLT | #22 ORG/VLT | #23 GRN/VLT | #24 BRN/VLT | #25 SLT/VLT | ----------------------------------------------------------------------------- A binder cable is most likely the largest cable you will find in a residential area. If you should inadvertantly slice through one of these with a hunting knife after accidentally digging a six foot hole directly above it, the above chart will be very handy in identifying exactly which 2 wires belong to which pair number in the binder cable. Once you have located 2 wires of the same color but in a different color pattern, such as a VLT/GRN and a GRN/VLT pair, you may splice and access this line with a test set, lineman's handset, beige box, or whatever you want to call it. Special thanks to phoneman and his url at www.geocities.com/siliconvalley/pines/4116/ for providing the bulk of the information contained in this article. =----------------------------------------------------------------------------= =-----------------------------------------------------------= | What to do when your mom finds your beigebox - by Dublisk | =-----------------------------------------------------------= A phreaker's nightmare is when their lineman's handset or beige box is taken away from them, or found. If it's by the FBI or the police you might have a chance to reason with them or at least settle something, but with moms there just is no hope. So what do you do when your mom finds that beige box hiding somewhere deep within your closet? Pray and keep mental notes of the following. You have to be ready to think of an excuse or explanation of what the thing is that she finds. Remember, stay cool and calm when lying to parents or anyone, as they seem to have the knack of being able to catch a lie as easy as 3.141592654. If you believe the lie to be true, then it is true. Don't ever smile or grin the slightest bit. You should try to seem a bit confused about the questions they are asking you, pretend to be a little stupid and don't be sure what they mean. This sort of thing can also help your social engineering skills as you have to be as believable as possible. Ok, I am going to insert some dialogue to show you some examples of what to do when your mom finds your beige box. SITUATION #1: What the hell is this phone and phone cords doing in this napsack? And why the hell is the end cut off with alligator clips on it? Uhhhhhhhhhh nothing. What do you mean nothing? I mean nothing by saying nothing? What? What? What are you talking about??? What the hell are you doing with a phone like that mom anyway huh???? Trying to tap into people phone lines or something??? you should be ashamed!!!! But wait a second here...... ANALYSIS: By confusing the mother, the phreak was able to get away with it and turn around the situation on the mom. SITUATION #2: What the hell is this phone and phone cords doing in this napsack? And why the hell is the end cut off with alligator clips on it? What? what are you talking about? This!! What the hell is this?? Oh that, yeah I was just trying out something with that. What exactly were you doing with it? Oh I was just trying out an experiment that I read about in a communications technology book that I found at school. You hook up those alligator clips to the ends of a latern battery and by changing the voltage and stuff you can make the phone ring and the light go on and things like that. Oh yeah right, then why the hell is there a flashlight, screwdrivers, and wrenches in here too? Yeah I had to pop open the bottom of the phone to do some stuff with the phone to get it to work properly. Yeah right, you better not be going out messing with people's phone lines. Now why would I want to do that? What could I do anyway? I don't know, but I better not find out you were getting into trouble. Trust me, jesus christ, I am not crazy. I just don't trust you, I am going to take this thing away where you will never get it again. ANALYSIS: Ok, except for the fact that he gets the box taken away, the phreak seems to have gotten away with it this time with some quick thinking, and note how the phreak asks the mom how he could do anything with that. Considering the mom doesn't know much about telephone networks she gets confused and assumes the phreak is telling the truth and couldn't have done anything bad. SITUATION #3: Hey, what the hell are these alligator clips doing at the end of this phone? That's a beige box you techno-weinie, now leave me alone before I destroy you with my evil haxor powers!!! muahahhahaha! AAAIIIIIIIEEEEEEEEE!!!!!!!!!! *Runs outside in terror* ANALYSIS: Quick, easy, painless, and works the best! Now what have you learned today? Never underestimate the power of the haxor. After reading that you should have a good understanding of what to do when your mom finds yer beigebox. As for finding credit card numbers, weeeeeeellllll thats another story. Till next time. -Dublisk =----------------------------------------------------------------------------= =---------------------------------------------= | Telco News - compiled & edited by KungFuFox | =---------------------------------------------= 1: Microsoft trying to take over the world! ($1 billion US West investment) 2: Citibank takes smart card to cleaners 3: FTC gives web suckers an even break 4: Bell Canada and NorTel agree to upgrade Bell Canada's DMS network 5: Bellsouth complains to congrees for not getting favors 6: AT&T Simplifies (charges more on) Basic Long Distance Rate Schedule "All the 2600 meets in Dallas are old phat guys who just tell us stories of what they've done. Don't get me wrong, some of the shit they done is reet but damn do they smell like shit." -Bishop =-----------------------------------------------------------= Microsoft bargaining for cable operations $1 billion investment in US West expected November 5, 1997 SAN FRANCISCO -- Microsoft Corp. is close to an agreement to invest up to $1 billion in the cable television operations of US West, according to several people involved in the negotiations. The investment would buy Microsoft as much as 6.3 percent of US West's cable business at the current stock price. More important, it would further the software giant's strategy of turning the nation's cable systems into the primary providers of high-speed access to the Internet -- with Microsoft hoping to control the television set-top box software people would use to get online. In June, in a similar deal, Microsoft agreed to pay $1 billion for an 11.5 percent stake in another big cable company, Comcast Corp. Word of the US West negotiations, which the two sides hope to conclude by early next month, comes just weeks after Microsoft was reported to be close to such a deal with cable company Tele-Communications Inc. But those talks have apparently been tabled, executives close to the situation said. Microsoft was said to be concerned about TCI's 39.5 percent stake in a potential Internet access competitor, @Home Corp. of Redwood City. @Home, moreover, employs the World Wide Web browser software of Microsoft's Internet software rival, Netscape Communications Corp. of Mountain View. Executives at Microsoft, US West and TCI all refused to comment. But Microsoft's chairman, Bill Gates, is known to have been pressing the cable industry to make the large investments in the digital technology and set-top boxes necessary for updating their high-capacity networks for widespread Internet use. Direct investments in cable companies by Microsoft are meant not only to provide some of the financing for such work but also to give the cable industry confidence that money spent on Internet technology will pay off in the future. Already, Microsoft's investment in Comcast has improved the cable industry's status with Wall Street, helping drive up the stock prices of many cable companies. For its own part, Microsoft sees cable access to the Net as a way for the company to potentially gain the same software dominance over millions of set-top boxes as it currently wields over millions of personal computers. The company also sees high-speed cable networks as a way to build on Microsoft's current Internet businesses, which include providing information, entertainment and commercial transactions via its MSN online network. Microsoft has already developed Windows CE, a consumer-electronics version of its Windows 95 software operating system for PCs, which the company is expected to promote as a standard for a new generation of cable set-top boxes. As part of its move into TV-based Internet access, Microsoft spent $425 million earlier this year to acquire WebTV Networks Inc. of Palo Alto, an Internet service provider, and Microsoft is said to be working on ways to blend WebTV's set-top technology with the Windows CE operating system. The people involved in the Microsoft-US West talks said the negotiations were moving quickly and that Microsoft hoped to announce a deal before the Western Cable Convention, a major industry trade show scheduled for early December. Teaming with Microsoft would be the sort of new opportunity that US West, a regional Bell telephone company, was thought to be seeking when it announced late last month that it would split off its cable business into a new corporation, the Media One Group. Media One, with 5.1 million households, would be the nation's third-largest cable system operator. The bulk of US West's cable subscribers were acquired last year when the company bought Continental Cablevision, a Boston-based cable operator that had been actively developing Internet services for its customers around the country. US West is also a major shareholder in Time Warner Inc. and an active partner in management of its cable systems -- an arrangement that would give Microsoft a foothold in Time Warner's growing cable empire. After some pending acquisitions, Time Warner will surpass TCI to become the industry leader, serving 13 million households. Microsoft's push into cable is causing alarm among its competitors, who fear that the software giant is intent on translating its dominance of the PC world into a similar position in digital television and the Internet. Such fears helped scuttle a previous campaign by Microsoft to make inroads into the cable industry. Several years ago, before the ascent of the Internet, Microsoft, TCI and Time Warner came close to forming a corporation, Cablesoft, that was to have developed software for the interactive cable systems then considered the wave of the future. That alliance failed to materialize, however, because the cable companies worried that Microsoft would become too powerful a partner. Microsoft subsequently turned its attention to the Internet, with an evolving strategy that has lately begun to place much less emphasis on providing information and entertainment content through news services and online magazines. Instead, Microsoft is now focusing on conducting commercial transactions over the Net through efforts like its Expedia travel service, its Carpoint auto sales business and its Sidewalk city guide, which includes ticketing and reservation services. Microsoft realizes that such ventures can become successful mass-market consumer businesses only if they are able to reach the tens of millions of households subscribing to cable television -- instead of the far fewer number now connected to the Internet through PC modems and conventional telephone lines. (c)San Jose Mercury News [I don't wanna cause a panic or anything but LOOK OUT YOUR WINDOW! BILLY G! HE'S RIGHT THERE(!&)#&!)#*!)#*!] =-----------------------------------------------------------= Citibank Takes Smart Card To Cleaners 11/03/97 By Mo Krochmal, TechWeb NEW YORK -- Citibank has distributed 25,000 smart cards -- credit card-sized devices that store a cash substitute on an embedded chip -- in what it calls the largest U.S. test yet of smart card technology. The bank said it expects to roll out a device in the next 60 days that will let customers use these smart cards instead of quarters to feed washing machines in New York City laundromats. "That will be such a win in a city like New York where most people use quarters at a washing machine and dryer," said Judith Darr, a vice president at Citibank who directs her bank's part of the test. Citibank is using the Visa Cash product, while Chase Manhattan is distributing Mondex, a MasterCard International product, in a collaborative six-month test being conducted on the Upper West Side of the city. At the Global Smart Card Advisory Service Conference in New York Monday, Darr said getting New Yorkers to use the cards for small purchases is not as simple as just handing cards to customers and readers to merchants. "We have a lot of work to get this momentum building," she said. Last week, Citibank finished distributing the cards, which look like an ATM card embedded with a gold-colored microprocessor, to its customers. Darr said 700 of 1,300 merchants in the area have signed on to test the product, including a lot of small cash-only businesses such as news stands, bodegas, and bakeries as well as larger outlets such as Burger Kings and drug stores. To back up the effort, the banks are marketing the product with direct mail reminders, telemarketing, billboards, and signs. In addition, bank employees are handing out some cards loaded with small amounts of currency in what Darr called "in their face" marketing. "We are really having to build the transactions quite quickly," Darr said. "We think that will help jump-start the program." Darr said the bank will soon introduce a Veriphone ATM terminal that will let customers load the product at home over the phone lines and will have, just in time for Christmas, a pre-loaded, reloadable card -- perfect for a stocking stuffer. And, with the introduction of the laundry device, it will be a clean stocking, no doubt. (c)CMP Media, 1997. =-----------------------------------------------------------= FTC Gives Web Suckers an Even Break by Wired News Staff 4.Nov.97 -- The great Moldovan porn fraud: The Federal Trade Commission said today that 38,000 consumers who were caught up in a Web scam in which they were bilked of US$2.47 million in long-distance phone charges will get full credit for the money they lost. The scheme publicized in February involved several sites that invited visitors to download "viewing software" in order to receive free pornographic pictures. The downloaded software was equipped to do something that went unnoticed by most users: it turned off their modem speakers, dropped users' local phone connections to their ISPs, then redialed phone numbers assigned to Moldova to re-establish a connection to the porn sites. Defendants included Internet Girls and Audiotex Connection Inc., both of Rockville Center, New York; Promo Line Inc., of Dix Hills, New York; William Gannon, one of the principals in Internet Girls, Audiotex, and Promo Line; and David Zeng, a computer programmer who worked on the scam. Under an FTC settlement, the defendants will pay AT&T and MCI, which will in turn issue credits to consumers victimized in the scheme. --- MS annihilation warning: Orrin Hatch says Microsoft is trying to dominate the Internet. "Microsoft now has the ability to virtually annihilate any competitive product it wants by bringing it into the next version of Windows," the chairman of the US Senate Judiciary Committee told The Wall Street Journal. "There's evidence that they are aggressively seeking to extend that monopoly to the Internet, and policy-makers have to be concerned about it." The Utah Republican's committee is scheduled to hold a hearing on Internet commerce Tuesday. Hatch's comments come soon after the Justice Department charged Microsoft with violating a 1994 consent degree that placed guidelines on the company's marketing of its Windows operating system. (3.Nov.97) (c)1993-97 Wired Ventures, Inc. =-----------------------------------------------------------= Bell Canada And Nortel (Northern Telecom) Sign Agreement To Upgrade Bell's DMS Switching Network November 5, 1997 BRAMPTON, Ont., /PRNewswire/ - Nortel (Northern Telecom) is pleased to announce a two-year contract with Bell Canada for $US 82 million dollars to provide network software and hardware upgrades. These upgrades will impact every DMS-100, DMS-200, DMS-TOPS and DMS-STP switch in the Bell Canada network. This contract is the next step in a modernization program by Bell Canada in providing readiness to deploy enhanced and future services on a network-wide basis. "We consider Nortel equipment to be consistently the most reliable in the world. This upgrade will be a strategic advantage for our network and will make Bell an even more competitive player," said Dave Southwell, Chief Technology Officer of Bell Canada. "These upgrades will not only lead to lower operational costs through network simplification, but will increase our ability to launch new services and features anywhere in our served territories to the benefit of our customers." With four of Canada's largest cities located in this network -- Ottawa, Canada's capital and Toronto, Ontario; and Montreal and Quebec City, Quebec -- this upgrade will benefit Bell Canada subscribers who use over 10 million access lines. The implementatiuon will be in two phases: first, the entire network will reach a minimum software level of NA005 by the end of 1997; this will be followed by an upgrade to NA008 bye the end of 1998. The upgrades include DMS SuperNode 50s with mixed memory, and DMS SuperNode 60s and 70s, which are among the most advanced Nortel processors available. Bell Canada, the largest Canadian telecommunications operating company, markets a full range of state-of-the-art products and services to more than seven million business and residence customers in Ontario and Quebec. Bell Canada is a member of Stentor, an alliance of Canada's major telecommunications companies. (c)PR Newswire. All rights reserved. =-----------------------------------------------------------= BellSouth Asks Congress To Aggressively Oversee Implementation of 1996 Telecom Act November 5, 1997 WASHINGTON, /PRNewswire/ -- BellSouth (NYSE: BLS), today called on Congress to aggressively assert its oversight jurisdiction to ensure straightforward and common sense implementation of the Telecommunications Act of 1996. In testimony before a House Judiciary Committee oversight hearing on the activities of the federal government's antitrust enforcement activities, BellSouth Vice President Mark Feidler pointed out that BellSouth already has gone to extraordinary lengths to help competitors get into local telephony. BellSouth has provided telecommunications services that have let competitors take more than 215,000 customer lines formerly serviced by BellSouth, Feidler said. That volume is growing at 25 percent a month, a rate comparable to the growth of customers on the Internet, he added. However, rather than encouraging competition, Feidler concluded the Justice Department is involved in creating "endless process -- all aimed, apparently, at preventing long-distance competition, not promoting it." Feidler charged the Department with usurping the role of state public service commissions. "Instead of adhering to the Act, which gave most of the responsibility for dealing with local market issues to the state regulators, the FCC and the Justice Department have continually expanded their scope of authority and given little or no deference to the findings of state regulators," Feidler told the committee. On Tuesday, the Justice Department recommended to the Federal Communications Commission that it reject BellSouth's application to offer long-distance service to its South Carolina customers. The Telecom Act of 1996 set standards for Bell companies to meet before being allowed into long-distance, in July, the South Carolina Public Service Commission affirmed by a 7-0 vote that BellSouth had met those conditions. The Department of Justice has strayed beyond its area of expertise, Feidler told the committee. He noted that Congress had given Justice a role in making recommendations about the antitrust aspects of Bell applications to enter the long-distance marketplace. Instead, he noted, "the Department has adopted a new standard, not based on any antitrust precedent, that calls for the local market to be 'irreversibly open to competition.'" In calling for Congress to step in and oversee the Act's implementation, Feidler said the Justice Department has stepped beyond its technical expertise, "In practice the Department has applied the standard to second guess the state public service commissions on matters within their sole jurisdiction, such as checklist compliance." BellSouth is a $19 billion communications services company. It provides telecommunications, wireless communications, directory advertising and publishing, video, Internet and information services to more than 28 million customers in 20 countries worldwide. (c)PR Newswire. =-----------------------------------------------------------= AT&T Simplifies Basic Long Distance Rate Schedule NEW YORK--(BUSINESS WIRE)--Nov. 4, 1997--In response to customer calls for simplicity and the success of its One Rate calling plan, AT&T today announced several changes to its basic interstate schedule for residential direct-dialed calls. The company will replace its domestic basic schedule's day, evening and night/weekend time periods with peak, off-peak and weekend time periods and will eliminate all mileage bands. Calls will be priced at a single rate during each time period, regardless of distance. The new time periods are as follows: Peak 7 a.m. - 6:59 p.m. Monday - Friday Off-Peak 7 p.m. - 6:59 a.m. Monday - Friday Weekend All day Saturday and Sunday Rates for the peak, off-peak and weekend time periods are 28 cents, 16 cents and 13 cents per minute, respectively. With the elimination of mileage bands and changes in time periods, many customers will see lower prices, depending on when they make their calls. For example, calls placed Sunday evening will be priced up to 25 percent lower than the current rate. The price changes become effective on Nov. 8, 1997, and do not affect AT&T customers who are enrolled in a calling plan. These changes apply only to AT&T's basic interstate residential direct-dialed rates, and do not affect the company's in-state calling plans. ["Rate simplificiation" must be an expensive program to impliment, seeing as this plan will cost consumers much more than before. There are a lot more (39 more) hours of peak/off peak rates (per week) now than before, which means there are 39 fewer night/weekend hours per week. That "elimination of mileage bands" happened in the 80s, which makes it odd they should mention it now. My advice would be to fear rate simplification.] =----------------------------------------------------------------------------= =-------------------------------------------= | Storytime with TFP | | By whoever bothered to submit (EviLSaNtA) | =-------------------------------------------= Consequences of borrowing ------------------------- One summer day, me and my friend were thinking of some thing to do. I saw all of these trucks and vans in a parking lot, and I said to my friend "hey, wanna go in there?", he said "sure". So we thought up stuff to steal and then jumped the fence and started going through the vans and trucks but our main purpose was to steal CBs and stuff, so we took a CB from a big van, and some other worthless shit, and just as we were about to leave my friend found a lineman's handset. He gave it to me, since he had no idea how to use the damn thing, but after awhile we started using it on cans and stuff, had a lotta fun with it... A few months (THREE months) later, we got caught. It turned out that some kids ratted us out for money (one of them was Danny Gibs, so if you live in Florida, and know him, please beat him down). So anyway it turned out that Lucent got robbed eight other times (by someone else) and we were one of the eight that got caught. They gave me an option: I could take this stupid program (JASP) or just goto JDC. So I took the JASP thing. I got 40 Hours of community service, had to take 2 of these "crime doesn't pay" classes, and they made me mow my lawn 3 times, don't ask me why. I'm also gonna have pay for the 'lost' fone, but in the end, I still had the handset. I just told the cops that I lost it. I'm not sure how much I gotta pay them; they haven't told me yet. PS - If you ever rob GTE or Lucent or any thing like that, please rember to wear gloves!!! =----------------------------------------------------------------------------= Dark|||Knight sent us this ANAC#: (903) 970-xxxx (Sherman, TX). See, we weren't kidding when we said we'd accept anything! TFP02 didn't have a mail or logs section because we didn't get any mail or logs that were printworthy. Yeah, so we do have standards afterall. Fabricate some hatemail or logs of you pranking the President. Please. That wraps it up for the anticlimactic issue two of TFP. Au revoir! Support America's Veterans! Just say no to TFP! =----------------------------------------------------------------------------=