Letters: LETTERS FROM YOUR

Dear 2600: I recently got a notice in the mail from Mountain Bell.  Me and 4 other guys roomed together in this apartment and one skipped town after he disconnected his phone.  He didn't pay his final bill, so Ma Bell is threatening to have our phones cut off because of what he did. The lady at Ma Bell says it's cause this guy left his final billing address as ours, so as far as Ma Bell's concerned, he still lives here and gets phone service by using our phones.  Can you believe it?!! P.S.  We are now having to pay $20 a month extra to keep our phones connected.  People!  If you're living with someone and are going to disconnect your fone, give Bell a fake final billing address so this doesn't happen to you!       Mad as Hell It would be amusing if someone were to give a large corporation's address as their final billing address.  Theoretically, everybody there would get a threat similar to yours.  Realistically, it probably isn't quite that easy.  But this is nothing new for telephone companies.  We've heard many similar stories and a good deal of them have to do with college students.  The telephone company gets away with murder when it comes to dealing with students in dormitories.

Dear 2600: My alias is The Crazy Man.  I run the board called The Phreak Show.  It can be reached at 303-979-7992.  Your magazine is a kick in the ass.  Keep up the good work!

Dear 2600: Please help me settle something I've long wondered about.  Do telephone employees get free phone service or discounts on their phone bill?       SJ From what we've been able to find out, free telephone service is given to management employees and also to those employees that have been around for thirty years or longer.  Usually there's a usage allowance of around $35 which includes service charges and local calls.  Any charges above that allowance get billed to the employee.  Anyone who works for the phone company for more than six months is entitled to a 50 percent discount.  These rules, though, probably vary greatly throughout the country.

Dear 2600: I recently purchased a TI-99/4A console.  I am having trouble producing multi-frequency hertz tones in BASIC.  Could you help me?       Another Hacker       Binghamton, NY

Dear 2600: As a novice hacker I have a great deal to learn.  I have recently purchased an Apple-CAT and am currently using "Joshua" for carrier detection and retrieval. My question is: "What do I do now?" Is there software or hardware available to hack the passwords and 10 numbers or does one just connect and play musical fingers on the keyboard until you get lucky? Any assistance would be greatly appreciated!       KC       Scottsdale, AZ There are many many programs out there to do just what you want to do.  Unfortunately, we don't have programs for these specific computers.  But we know many of our readers do.  We hope to receive programs in the future so that we can print listings.  In the meantime, musical fingers is a method that has proven effective in the past and is still known to work more than a few times.

Dear 2600: To start out I would like to say thank you.  I have been getting 2600 for a year almost.  I stopped phreaking about 8 months ago.  At one point in my life phreaking was very important.  So if you guys need any info let me know.  I will try and get it for you. Anyways here is a real short story.  I was talking with my dad about a year ago when I got into all this stuff.  He told me to be careful and watch what I was doing.  Then he told me about this new way in which it would make it impossible for someone like you or me to use another person's Sprint code.  This would be to make a device that would change the code each and every time you called the number.  Your device would make up half and the rest would give you the other half of the code. Do you know about any books or other good sources for phreaking information?  If so, please let me know.  I am doing a report for my history class. Do you have any info on the NSA?  Also could you somehow let me know about boxes?  Do you know or have any good phreaking board numbers?  I feel like a fool asking you for all this stuff.  But for now, you are the only ones who can help me out. Also, if you want info on companies like AT&T, ITT, etc., just let me know.  I would just send it all but that would be one hell of a pile.       DB       San Jose, CA Almost all of what you're looking for can be found right here in 2600.  We have an article on Blue Boxes this month and in the past we've focused on other kinds.  We're also constantly printing titles of reference materials.  There's no reason to feel like a clown for asking questions.  Just think of all the others who don't.  You've actually heard of the NSA!  And you don't seem to think it's another soccer league, as many do.  (Well have lots of info about them soon.) The device you mentioned sounds interesting.  But how would your little device know which numbers to spit out to the main computer?  Also, how would it stop hackers from guessing a one-time code anyway? As far as info on other companies, please send it.  We get a lot of mail and we read all of it.  All of the information we get is eventually conveyed to our readership, so everybody benefits.

Dear 2600: How can I make calls to ships at sea?  Do they each have their own phone number?  Is there a directory?       James We went right to the folks at AT&T on this one.  Here is their reply: "The procedure for placing long-distance calls to ships on the high seas are handled in the following manner.  [sic] You first must dial the operator and ask to be connected to the high seas operator.  The only information you have to provide is the name of the ship and a call letter.  The high seas operator then signals the ship.  It sometimes takes hours for the ship to return the call.  When the ship operator reaches the high seas operator, the call is then connected to the original caller.  All calls going to ships on the high seas must be placed this way - calls cannot be directly dialed.  There is at this time no printed list indicating ship 10 numbers or ocean codes." As always, 2600 will be more than happy to compile such a list.  Keep in mind, also, that failed attempts at reaching a ship (real or imagined) don't cost anything but time.