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From: hoque@huxley.bitstream.com (Tareq Hoque)
Newsgroups: comp.dcom.telecom
Subject: College Phracking
Message-ID: <10043@accuvax.nwu.edu>
Date: 23 Jul 90 20:13:01 GMT
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X-Telecom-Digest: Volume 10, Issue 509, Message 3 of 10


These college phracking stories remind me of my days at MIT and
dealing with Dormline ( . . . collect and third party calls, not
accepted).  Since Dormline was 1940's era step-by-step, it didn't have
any billing mechanism, thus it only accepted incoming calls, and you
could only make internal, toll-free or collect calls.  Anyhow, the
only way to get full telephone service was to get Netel to install
your own personal line.

A common thing to do in the dormitories was to share local lines with
several rooms, which required bridging lines and reconfiguring if
anyone changed rooms).  One day I lent my friend my Western Electric
lineman's set to do some maintenance on the bridge.  It turns out that
someone in the dorm saw him playing in the phone box in the basement
and called the Campus police.

When the campus police arrived, they questioned him on what he was
doing and seemed confident that he wasn't doing anything malicious.
They let him proceed with modifications but they did take down his
name for their notes.  After my friend was done, he gave me the
lineman's set back.  However, later in the week I got a frantic phone
call from this friend saying that the CP's have been calling him
because they want him to turn in the line set to the CP headquarters,
because he would be breaking the law if he didn't.

Well I told my friend that it was not illegal to own or use this
equipment for legitimate purposes, but he asked me to talk to the
police.

I asked the police why they thought I should give them my own personal
property.

They said it was against the law to own a lineman's set.  

I asked them to cite the law that prohibits possession of the
equipment.

They couldn't answer.  Then they said they wanted it because I could
do illegal activities with the set.

I told them I could kill somebody with my kitchen knife, did they want
that too?

In the end I told them I was refusing to give my property to them.
They said they would turn me in to the Dean of Student affairs if they
didn't receive it in 24 hours.  I never turned it in, and I never
heard about the incident again.


The good old days.

tareq