I scored a used WRTP54G today at the local Goodwill for $9. My plan was to unlock it (had been set up for v0nage) and use it for my own legitimate purposes. But since it had already received the v5 firmware, my hopes and dreams were dashed.
Out of sheer boredom, I decided to plug a phone into it and dial random numbers. Oddly enough, I got an intercept recording - voiced by Allison Smith nonetheless - telling me that I had most likely plugged the phone into the wrong port. "Woah," thought I, "it seems that this thing can still connect to The Provider's proxies!"
I switched teh fone to Port 2, and lo and behold - dialtone! I dialed 555-1212, and got Free411. I then dialed another random number, and got an intercept with no message (SIT, eight seconds or so of silence, SIT, eight more seconds of silence, disconnect). At this point, I figured what I had was much like an unregistered cellfone - free and emergency calls go through, but billable calls are out.
For some reason, I decided to try one more number... the local Pizza Hut. And to my utter disbelief, THE CALL WENT THROUGH.
So it seems that either: a) the customer donated this box without canceling their service, b) the customer has a new box but isn't using it at the moment or hasn't started using it yet, or c) the provider didn't notice anything was awry and put the call through because my box didn't register (it was behind a NAT, so it couldn't)
This leads me to several questions:
1) Let's pretend that the customer has a new box, and it is online, provisioned, and registered. What happens if my box also tries to register with the same number?
2) If two (or more) clients are making outgoing calls on one account but only one is registered, would this raise any flags with The Provider, or would it likely only be noticed by the customer on their next bill?
3) Being as said service is (AFAIK) unlimited in nature, would the customer see anything different on their bill at all?
4) Assuming one was to take reasonable precautions (not using any IP associated with the user personally, blocking outbound CID, not being retarded in general) could this be a viable way to make free outbound calls for a rather long period of time?
Of course I have no intention of doing this - I have my own OMG CHEEPX long distance that I'd much prefer to use, and I'm not really in the mood to defraud innocent people anyways. But what do you guys think?
