____________________________ The Story Of The Centurion ___________________ As told by phlux; phlux@fucktelus.com _______________ Introduction; This txt will document various experiences I had dealing with one paticular centurion payphone in my area, along with other information regarding it. I have compiled it in story form, inspired by theclone and RTs txt of similar nature. Also i find txts are much more enjoyable when i can read them in somewhat of a story, in the writers own words. It is in some sense like i was a part of their experience, and therefore more interesting rather then a generic txt giving the 0h day shit, straight up. If you don't like it, fuck me, and read it anyways, you may learn something. _____________________________________________________________________________ Our story begins, with phlux in a car, being driven to his new home, in a small town in 780, Alberta. I am driven a small tour of this small town. My parents tell me, "there's a bar, post office, an elementary school for the little ones..." I interupt them "is there a payphone?" i ask as we drive by the payphone. "yup... but that's about it"... I quickly notice that the payphone is a Telus Centurion, the brown box sort. It is housed in a wall type freestanding booth, offering little housing. Little did I know what adventures would be had at this phone. Some might seem of little significance, but they're all memories. And all memories are treasured in due time. Sometime shortly after unpacking, i take a walk to the payphone. Not having anyone to call, or any money to call anyone, i dial 311, the local telus ANAC. "7..8..0..X..X..X......" (number ommitted for security reasons).... I then dial the telus ring back, 570.XXX.XXXX, the sound of the mechanical bell is somewhat pleasing as i've not heard one in quite sometime, and also because it sounds somewhat different than standard mechanical ringers, as it is housed in the thick armoring. Not knowing what else i could call.. i decided to try the ring back again. And then again, a few times... one last time i called, and as the phone rung i walked away. As i turn my back, the phone suprises me... "RIIIINNNNGGGG" the first ring was prominent as usual, however the second one was moreso a half ring, with the end of the ring trailing off, it sounded really cool, it was as though the ringer was dying out. The third ring was very quiet, and much shorter. I pickup the handset, listened to the test tone, and then proceed to call the ring back again, flash hooking and looking at the phone, waiting. Right when i thought i had killed the bell, i hear the slightest tingle of the bell. It was so quiet, and only partial. I try once more, and this is repeated. I walk home trying to think what just happened... I don't visit the payphone until sometime passes. I don't really remember this time period too well, but I will merge a legit log of a conversation that took place on irc. Note this log is completely unedited. At this time I was going through another nick phase, in the log i am obvisouly zur and pooly being a good friend of mine. Greets to pooly. fucked phone.txt (the log) created: Sunday, June 04, 2000, 2:35am *** Now talking in #Marcie *** ChanServ sets mode: +nt *** ChanServ sets mode: -o zur *** ChanServ changes topic to 'MDFMK OWNS YOU!!!!' *** pooly (ignorethat@216.225.107.217) has joined #marcie *** ChanServ sets mode: +o pooly -ChanServ:#marcie- pooly has opped zur *** ChanServ sets mode: +o zur this centurion ive been playin with is totally fucked the hopper is all FUCKER i make a legit all with coins.. .and the hopper doesnt empty it out into the cash box it gave ur money bakc then if i fuck around with the phone long enough... hitting the hangup switch.. pressing buttons makin cool tones ? it gave more yea when i fuck around it empties the hopper heh today i made 70cents that's cool a few days ago about 5 bucks and i thought about stuffing phones as a job if i dial a ring back number... i get a quarter of a ring and its very faint... then nothing and i did that 3 times come back to it like 45 min later it wont do it coincidentally the lights to the booth dont work i think its got some kinda power problem as i recall the op can empty the hopperinto coin return with voltage modulation so maybe when i was fucking around it got a lil surge and interpreted it as a coin return thinger? like a green box? i dunno fuck i wanna know wtf is goin on yea and i was babysitting for this hot bitch and her bra is lyin around the house and its a DD 36 but anyways she goes "dont let the kids stay up past 9:30" but like she isnt back yet so i dunno if she wanted me to wait for her? or just walk home after theyre in bd?? bed any fucking ideas? you should wait at her place? maybe she'll give u extra cash ya or some fucking head hmm i dont think that bra was hers shes got nice knockers but not DD 36 or whatever but head is always nice or she'll let u poke her knockers with weiner k i fucking better get back over there.. the fucked payphone is across the street ne ways heh yea tit fucking is some good hehe i ill bring all the change that cocksucker gave me cya dude heh *** Disconnected I remember now, the payphone had emptied its hopper on me more then once. It would happen when i just fucked around with it, dialing ring backs, INWATS, maybe an ANAC.. I recall when i would get a VMB or some other DTMF sensitive automated operator, if i couldn't crack the password or even get to a password prompt, i would mash the keypad. In some sense, it didn't suprise me when i would hit 2 keys at the same time and hear a non DTMF telephone tone, but at the same time it did as the called partys recording got dimmer. After fucking around, doing shit like that, when i would press the hookswitch to release the line, this was when the hopper would empty, also one time i believe it was when i was dialing the ring back, and i went to hookflash then the hopper would give me its gold. The sound of multiple coins gushing through the coin return chute from the hopper was much more enjoyed then the actual profits. From then on, i tried to make regular trips to the payphone, wanting to know why, what happened, when it happened, knowing it had much to offer. I recall being somewhat idle in the phreaking scene, in the sense of actually doing stuff, but i remained active in keeping 'updated' to some degree, and also maintaining an online presence. I would generally use the payphone to checkout some numbers i had acquired. I got dropped docs to a 'private' teleconf, hosted by some familiar people in the scene, not knowing what it had to offer, i grabbed my skateboarded and headed to the payphone without thinking twice, opdiverting in, the conference wasn't all too interesting. I sat on the slanted base of the open housing designed to hold the phonebook. When i stood up, i realized there was a huge fucking spider, using the phones cover for housing. I hate spiders so i freaked out, i was sitting and this fucker was a few inches away from my head. I tried to stand on the other side of the booth, but the armored cabling connecting the handset was too short. Still being startled by the spiders mere presence, i booked, also TRON is a lamer, and not a good host. In spite of this, after having gone home, realizing my associate operative agent would be on the conference, i skated back to the payphone to call in. He wasn't in, so i ended up just lurking for a bit, and then i threw the handset at that fucking spider, fucked up his web good. I hit the hook switch to save conf time, and skated away, the handset dangling. TRON is a lamer. Simple experiences like this made my daily interaction with this payphone somehow imperable. I tried to devise notes of phone numbers to call. Some were from skans, some i had acquired from friends, or however i got them, all the interesting ones went on documented. Finding a pen was one thing, so I found it just as easy to scratch phone numbers, using a screwdriver on a floppy disk with bad sectors, writing the digits on cigarette pack tin foil works well with a phillips head. One time i even wrote a conference pin # on the side of the actual booth with a rock, this also worked well. It seemed other people had this idea as well. With these trips, i dialed many numbers, usually collect calls where you don't have to speak with an operator. Collect calling is a great way to check out a long distance phone number, assuming it doesn't have a collect block. However i have never boxed a call from the payphone... Interestingly enough, I found that when i first got to the payphone, my first local call would be free, and any after, i would get that nasty intercept recording. I hate that bitches voice. These free local calls, i couldn't really explain.. my guess was that they were the cause of the coins in the hopper, left unaccounted for, and left up to me to account for them. A week or two ago, if i recall correctly, i got pretty pissed off with the centurion. The light in the booth didn't work, not only making it a bitch to read numbers i had brought with me.. But also because i wanted to try out my acoustic coupler, not having a laptop, i considered packing my 386, and a small 9" monochrome orange MDA monitor to the payphone in a duffle bag, using the AC from the light to power this operation. Not sure if the light just burnt out or if there was other problems, i called 611 one morning after much thought. The centurion did many things i found interesting. The above, also when releasing the line, and going off hook, before a dialtone was heard, there would be a few clicks, usually 2 or 3, sometimes 4, all with static in between. Sometimes i swear i could hear a voice in these clicks. Lately, there would be a constant 4 clicks before i would get a dialtone, and when dialing PBXs/extenders/etc, when being connected to a tie trunk, it was quite prominent, in the sense that i could hear 1-2 clicks with the static while being transfered. Usually from 800.646.0000 (telus dial around ops which i often use for collect calls) while being transfered to the actual system from the "welcome to telus" or variant message. Telus was pissing me off at the time (and still is) so i walked to the centurion one morning, and my first call was to that of telus repair, 611. I reported that the payphone did weird things, it was often staticy (as it was) and the lights on the booth didn't light and this caused much grief as i couldn't read the numbers off my telus calling card. (yeah right!) "I didn't even know there was a payphone here because i always traveled past in the dark! I only found it in the daylight..." A week had passed when i realized the payphone granted unlimited free local calling, when i realized this, i spent a fair bit of time at the phone. A week later, after having completed an all niter, i skated down to the centurion, with a few numbers in mind to call, one being fairly important, in regards to a job as my dad was on our single landline. The moment i picked up the handset something seemed odd, as i dialed 411 i noticed a new armored cable, it was much longer, and not as thick as the original. I pulled the handset away from my ear, and there was indeed a new handset. I continued with my call, got the number i needed and proceeded to dial it. "your call could not be completed as dialed... please check the number, read the instruction card, or dial 0 for assistance, thank you from telus..." I immediately threw the handset at the keypad, if this phone had a leg, it would kick me right in the fucking nuts. I hit the hook switch a few times, it made a single click, the dialtone was very clear. Next i dialed the ring back, the ringing startled me ... i never learned exactly how long it would take for the ring back to do its work, as the "old" centurion was unpredictable; sometimes, the ring back wouldn't work, and i could pick up the handset and hear the test tone, it had in fact worked the phone just didnt bother to let me know. Other times the ringing would be delayed, or the ring would be extremely faint. After the second ring from the repaired payphone, which was answered with haste, i quickly pressed the hook switch, and released just as fast, and i was greeted with a dialtone. I listened to it for a bit thinking what to call. It was always what, rarely who. Telus operators weren't really people were they? I called the telus automated dialaround, 800.646.0000, and placed a collect call, the line was very clean, as the call was routed, i didn't have anything to call... so i went home. Today, September 14, 2001 i've come to terms with the centurion. Looking for information, while high on information, i tried to pull up information for my fellow centurion. Many documents on newer phones, the millennium, elcotels, paytels... No avail. Re-reading the other payphone information, i wondered if it were possible for a line seizing exploit to be carried out on the brown box?? I found something rather interesting, according to payphone-directory.org a series of 130v pulses is used to signal coin return, and coin collect at the end of the call. This is somewhat correct, if a local call were placed, and the called party answered, the hopper would empty its contents to the cash box. So the pulses that would be sent at the END of the call would be a coin return if a NIS, busy, or number of that sort was reached. This pseudo green boxing 'technique' obviously has something to do with the problems the centurion had before it was repaired. I could not find any documentation on the centurions required loop line current, but when i find a good multimeter (my $20 Canadian Tire piece wouldn't do the trick..) i will get a reading of the current line current. Before i phoned repair, the loop current must have been quite high, as I experienced various problems with the phone including, cut offs (i assumed it was the handset, this was true some of the time), cross talk was heard sometimes, i was able to hear squealing, and generally just shitty quality. Also, i quite often got alot of circuit failures, and even now with the phone 'repaired' (the fucker didn't fix up the light) i can not reach any numbers prefixed with 310, which should be toll free anywhere in alberta, and as I understand, other areas. Oh well at least i won't have to worry about standing near spiders that aren't there because of the extended armored cabling. In the phones previous state, 310 was reached with no problem. Im going to slap some resisters on that line, fuck telus. Also, i believe it possible for the centurion to be exploited using a line seizing sort of 'attack'. Stay tuned, as i bend telus over bare. --phlux 09/20/2001