From: mgm@world.std.com (michael g moncur)
Subject: High School Phone-line shenanigan
Organization: The World Public Access UNIX, Brookline, MA
Date: Sun, 8 Nov 1992 08:08:31 GMT


  My friends and I spent alot of time `geeking out' in the computer lab at
High School (on Apple-compatibles, ugh.)  At one time we thought it would
be neat if we had our own phone line in the lab for modeming.  After a
brief attempt at doing it legally (we asked the CS teacher and he said
no.) we moved on...

  There was a seldom-used modem hookup in the "other " computer lab of the
school.  This was a roomful of IBM PC's next to the library.  This lab is
upstairs from the CS lab, but only one room away horizontally. 
  
  First, we needed some phone line.  We didn't have any money, of course. 
There was a Bell substation and office next door to the school; a friend
and I went there, hoping to find a "scrap" we could use.  We walked
directly into the building - some sort of meeting seemed to be going on. 
We explained that we were installing a new phone line in the computer lab
at the school (the truth always works best...)  The "man in charge" said
that it was their policy not to give away such things, but one of the
drivers said that he had a small scrap in his truck we could have.  He led
us out to the truck, and handed us a NEARLY-FULL 100-foot spool of phone
wire...  We thanked him and left.

  Next came the wiring.  Ray and I went into the PC lab during a class. 
The only person there was a girl working on some sort of report.  She
asked what we were doing, and we told her.  We hooked up our wire (leaving
the original modem connection intact), and secured the wire as well as we
could with tape, running it next to a conduit on the ceiling.  It ran
around the corner, across the ceiling, and then back down and out the
window.  This window overlooks an "ampitheatre" area in the center of the
school, which is very seldom occupied.  Finally, we dropped the spool with
the remaining wire out the window.  From there, it was a simple matter of
going into the "ampitheatre", and passing the wire into the window of the
CS lab downstairs. 

  We now had our own phone line...  We had a couple of days of fun using
it for modeming (with a Commodore 64 and a 1200 baud modem) and for prank
phone calls, including a couple of calls to the school itself... 
 
  Alas, it was not to last.  The next evening, the librarian discovered
our poorly-hidden wire, followed it out the window, and then finally burst
into the CS lab, tore the thing out, and left in a huff, taking all of the
wire, our telephone, and our modem. 
 
  We went in to the librarian's office the next day, and explained that
our friend would really like his modem (the only thing of any value) back,
and that we had no idea where the phone line came from - we claimed to
have merely "discovered" it and taken advantage of it.

  Of course, he didn't believe a word of it...  But he turned out to be a
pretty nice guy.  He played along, and gave us the modem, the phone cord,
and the phone (which we insisted wasn't ours.)  He then told us that it
had better not happen again.  Needless to say, it didn't.
 
  I'll admit that using someone's phone line without their knowledge is
more of a prank (or a 'phreak') than a shenanigan, but this was done
entirely in the shenanigan spirit - we did nothing harmful.  (We could
have called all sorts of long-distance BBS's, but we refrained).  As I
look back at this story, it sounds terribly farfetched...  But it really
happened.  Sadly, reality, jobs, and being over 18 have prevented me from
doing anything of this nature in a long time.  I'm somewhat glad - it's
amazing we didn't wind up in juvenile court for that one...



-- 

~`~`michael moncur - mgm@world.std.com / sysop@onlybbs.via.mind.org ~`~`