Howto: Beige Box (w/o destroying phone)

[Oilik]

Hello, today I'm going to show you how I beige box, since my mom wont let me mess up one of her phones.


--Building------------------------------------------
-----Tools------------------------------------------

• Electrical Tape
• Soldering Gun
• Wire Cutters
• Small tip pliers

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-----Parts------------------------------------------

• Old 56K Modem
• 4ft solid core wire
• Alligator Clips (optional, depending on TNI)
• Phone for later use

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-----Steps-----------------------------------------

• Carefully pull jack off of 56K modem
• Cut 2 prongs off of the modem(I'm sure you couldn't get them with the jack ;)) [[[Make sure you get them very close to the bottom!]]]
• Put the prongs in the 3rd and 4th hole on the jack
• Cut the 4ft wire into 2 2ft pieces
• Strip ends of both sides of each wire
• With soldering gun, put a drop of solder at the top
• When that turns soft, quickly hold it sideways(solder side up) and lay 1 wire on top of 1 prong, do not touch the other. Move this around until they are in a good place, and will stay when you remove the iron.
• Do the same with the other prong, and the other wire.
• Ok, chances are, you've either taken the prongs out or moved them. Put the prongs back in the jack (3, 4) and tape the wires and back of prongs securely around the jack. Then take your needlenose pliers and adjust them on the inside to fit a phone(leave them sticking out a bit)
• Tape around the jack quite a few times, until you feel it's secure. Make sure NO wires are touching and the wires on the inside line up with the jacks of a corded phone(what we're designing this for, not cordless)
• Put the alligator clips on the end of the wire.

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--Using---------------------------------------------
-----Tools------------------------------------------

• Beige Box mentioned above
• Butter knife, or regular screwdriver
• Corded Phone

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-----Searching------------------------------------

• Find a TNI of your friends or someone who doesn't call the cops for suspicious looking people hooking wires into boxes on sides of their house. (preferably at night time)

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-----Using------------------------------------------

• Unscrew the TNI with your tool
• Hook it/Clip it(if or not you have alligator clips, I don't, so I hook it) on the terminals (red and green, if colored) [[[Note: You may need to try a different set of terminals]]]
• Plug your corded phone into the beige box tool
• Listen, make calls, what ever. (If you hear a dial tone, that is)

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Pictures:
How it should go in the TNI:


What it should look like done:


The phone plugs into it :D (dunno why I took this pic):

[trevelyn]

 

[Oilik]

I just took pics

Edit:
Added to first post.

[Woofcat]

feel free to call me foolish if i missed something. But would it have not been easier you buy a length of phone line with the female end. Then, you know cut and strip it?

Taring stuff off of a modem seems like a ton of work for a $3 cable, or you might even own a spare.

[Copyright]

I went to the dollar store today and they have the actual thing that you made with the modem.(Female RJ11 if I'm correct). All you needed to do was add alligator clips to the end.

[Oilik]

Yeah, pretty much. But I did this because I had these useless parts lying around my house that I would never use, so I thought I'd put them to work instead of marching off to the dollar store and spending a couple bucks.

[linear]

most modern TNI boxes have typical phone jacks, eliminating the need for alligator clips.

[Copyright]

most modern TNI boxes have typical phone jacks, eliminating the need for alligator clips.

Modern TNI boxes? There's barely any TNI boxes here any more since everything is run through cable now.

[linear]

modern as in the last generation of TNI's

[Oilik]

most modern TNI boxes have typical phone jacks, eliminating the need for alligator clips.

Yeah, I've noticed that. Sadly, mine doesn't. I went to the other side of the street(They have the new SBC boxes) and they have those, nice and ready for you to plug your phone in. But They still have the 4-8 terminals in there, so if someone feels like going old school, they could.

[trevelyn]

most modern TNI boxes have typical phone jacks, eliminating the need for alligator clips.

yeah but wouldnt you then have to use a splitter to listen in on conversations? if you unplug the wire to plug in your beigebox you DoS the home owners line.

[silentneep]

I've personally never seen a TNI box with only one jack inside.  What I usually see is two or four.  So you wouldn't have to unplug their line to plug yours in.

[linear]

i've seen old boxes with just one jack and in that situation you wouldn't be able to listen in, but like silentneep said, most have multiple jacks.

[trevelyn]

i've seen old boxes with just one jack and in that situation you wouldn't be able to listen in, but like silentneep said, most have multiple jacks.

Ive seen really strange TNI's for Payohones, such as open the main door and theres 10 more rectangular doors inside each one covering 2 nodes.  but never seen one with 2 female rj. maybe i should beige moar.

[Enamon]

This is a joke, right?

Just get some phone wire with jacks on both ends (your typical RJ-11 cable). Cut off the jack from one of the ends, split and strip the wire and solder or tape or something the wiring to two alligator clips. Make sure you're using the ones with insulation on em so you wont get that funny tingly feeling as the dialtone runs through your arm... That's it. What the hell were you planning on doing to that phone that was going to fuck it up?