Beige boxing's a bit more difficult than red boxing, and is more of a risk to the phreaker, but unlike red boxing, it doesn't involve calling the operator and is not limited to being used with a payphone.

The beige box is a lot more versatile than the red box as it can be used anywhere a line pair can be found. Phreakers often use neighbour's telephone lines, a cab box, the little black box at the top of telegraph poles, public payphones etc.

The easiest way to make a beige box is to use a modified home phone.

Cut the cable about three inches from the connector plug and bare the red and white wires (on the plug piece of the cable as well as the phone cable). Cut off the blue and green wires as they're not needed.

Now solder 4 insulated crocodile clips to the bared wires. You should then be able to connect the plug back up to the phone with the crocodile clips, and test your beige on a standard BT socket to make sure it works okay.

Warning, it is illegal to connect a beige box made up this way to a BT socket as the phone will no longer have BABT approval as it has been modified.

If you have your own PABX, you may be allowed to use it as many PABX's do not require BABT approved equipment. If in doubt, check with the owner of the PABX before trying this yourself.

The phreaker will use his beige box on any line pair he wants to use as follows :-

He will disconnect the plug, and use the croc clips on the phone end to connect the beige to the line pair. It doesn't matter which way round the wires are connected to the line pair as modern phones are designed to work with the line pair connected either way round. Once connected, he then uses the phone to dial whatever number he wants, thus getting free calls.

OK. that's the easiest way to make a beige box, but it's also the most risky for the phreaker to use as it looks a bit suspicious wandering around with a telephone in his pocket which has crocodile clips on the end ;).

So what's the answer ?

See the next section on making a miniature, easy to conceal version that uses an earpiece and lapel mike ;)