This project began in late 2005, when the website www.phonetrips.com came to Mark's attention. On that site one can find old recordings of phone sounds: call-progress tones, clicks, ker-chunks, all sorts of things. Someone had traveled around the country back in the 70s capturing these magical sounds. In addition, there were a handful of actual recordings of blue boxing recorded in a narrated "radio show" format for all posterity. Hearing those tones brought back memories of when Mark himself experimented with blue boxing back in the 80s. Blue boxing can best be defined as directly signaling those legendary MF tones across analog trunks in the old telephone network, exploring the inner workings through pure sound alone.
After repeatedly listening to these "phonetrips," Mark thought to himself, "It's a shame all that's gone now. No more analog trunks or MF signaling, no more 2600Hz. SS7 and the completely digital, intelligent routing network are the order of the day." And that's just the way things are. But wouldn't it be cool if there was some way to bring it all back?
And so....
This presentation is the daring story of how Mark used Asterisk and VoIP to bring back blue boxing - essentially a fully working model, connected to the public telephone network, of analog signaling in all its glory. We can all blue box again and Mark will show you how you too, with some Asterisk and VoIP experience, can use his code modifications to Asterisk to set up your very own working analog trunks and vintage routing codes, and ultimately recreate a piece of history for all telecom enthusiasts, MFers, and phone phreaks to enjoy.
(This talk was originally scheduled for 1600 Saturday.)