Below I will explain how to place specific phone calls with a red box as well as troubleshooting problems you have while trying to red box.

FINDING A PAY PHONE THAT WILL WORK

This shouldn't be too hard - finding the pay phone you'll use to red box from. You can't use just any pay phone, you have to use a Bell or GTE phone. How do you know if it's a Bell or GTE phone? Well, it'll have a Bell or GTE symbol on it. Duh.

Look at the instruction card on the top of the phone for the name of your local phone company such as Southwestern Bell, Bell Atlantic, Pacific Bell, GTE, US West, Ameritech, etc. If you can't find their logo on the pay phone or on the phone booth, then most likely you're not dealing with a phone company pay phone.

These "generic" phones are referred to as "cocots" and will not work for red boxing. You generally find cocots in front of cheap convenience stores and supermarkets. They charge outrageous local and long distance rates, then usually split the profits with the store owner. The best thing to do when you come across one of these phones is to squirt packet of ketchup into the coin slot and go find a Bell or GTE phone.

Most Bell/GTE phones will work but occasionally you'll find one that doesn't. Sometimes the phone company will mute all noise from going into the mouthpiece until you deposit real money. Sometimes there are ways around this, but not always. (See the troubleshooting section at the bottom of this page for solutions.)

MAKING A LONG DISTANCE CALL

Okay, here's the fun part - Calling anywhere in the entire world and not paying a cent for it. Pick up the phone and dial the number you want to call in the fashion 1-AREA CODE-NUMBER. For example, if you want to call the White House in Washington D.C., dial 1-202-456-1414.

You'll hear a click, then a computer voice will say, "Please deposit $2.85." (The exact amount differs with the location and time of day.) Mutter, "Fuck you, AT&T..." to yourself, switch on your red box, hold the speaker of the red box flush with the mouthpiece on the pay phone and press P1 for your quarters.

Pause for a split second in between each quarter because if you go too fast, you'll get a live operator wanting to know what the problem is. You are able to go 20 cents over the amount requested and that will be credited to your call and taken off the next time the recording comes on and asks you for money.

After you've put in enough "money", the computerized voice will say in a cheerful, unsuspecting voice, "Thank you for using AT&T!" and your call is put through. Every few minutes the voice will come back and ask for more money.

INTERNATIONAL CALLING

Your red box can also be used to call your loved ones in other countries, although, it's annoying to do because you HAVE to use a live operator and your conversation will be inturrupted every three minutes by a computerized voice asking for another two bucks. But if you really need to call overseas...

Dial 011-COUNTRY CODE-CITY CODE-PHONE NUMBER. An operator will ask you how you want to bill your call. Tell her you'll be using the spare change you make as a waiter and MoogooGuawkcaMeemay's Chineese restaurant to pay for your call. For best results, don't do this:

OPERATOR: "Okay, sir, please deposit your money now..."
YOU: "Okay, ma'am, I'm going to use nickels...(beep)...That was one nickel. Did you get that alright? Okay, here's my second nickel...(beep)...okay, there's two nickels, that makes 10 cents. How much more to go? $9.10? Okay...(beep)...I'm up to 15 cents now, right? Okay, good...(beep)...alright, there's another one...Hey, here's a penny on the ground! Can I use a penny? No? Okay, here goes lucky nickel number five...(beep)...did you get that? Okay....etc, etc, etc."

The call will be completed like this: The operator will tell you that the call will cost (for example) $7.35. She'll tell you to deposit $3.00, you red box three dollars to her and she connects the call. When the overseas person answers the phone she'll say, "This is the United States AT&T operator, I have an international call for you, could you please hold while billing is completed?" Then the operator will ask you for another $3.00 and then the remaining $1.35. After all that you'll be connected only to be inturrupted every three minutes by an operator asking for more money.

If you don't want the person you are calling to know you're calling with coins, you can ask the operator if you can deposit all your money right now and then be connected overseas. They don't like to do this because you could lose all your "money" if they're not home but they will do it if you ask.

LOCAL CALLS

To red box a local call it takes about a minute or two longer than if you really paid for it, but those quarters add up so it's definately worth it.

Pick up the phone and dial zero. Tell the operator that you want to make a local call. If she tells you just to put in a quarter and dial the number, tell her, "Well, ma'am, there's shit all over the keypad here and all the buttons are stickin' together and I CAN'T dial it myself. The only key that works is the zero and that's got this sticky blue shit all over it. Then there's a half-eatin' Twinkee shoved in the coin return and dirt all over the four and seven keys..." Keep going on and on until she asks you what number you want to dial. She'll ask you for a quarter and connect your call.

Sometimes the operator will decide to be a bitch about it and tell you that in order for her to place the local call for you, it's gonna cost $1.10 instead of just 25 cents. Just complain alot but finally give in and box her the money she wants. We all know who'll get the last laugh.

Make sure after your call connects that you hear the operator click off. Some operators are nosey and will just sit there listening to your conversation. Once I was explaining to a friend how I placed my call and suddenly the operator starts lecturing me and telling me she's going to call security on me. (And this was about three minutes into the conversation!)

In some cities I've noticed you can trick pay phones into thinking that a local call is actually a long distance call by dialing 10288 before you dial the local number. So try dialing 10288 or 102881 before you make your local call and maybe you won't have to deal with that pesky operator. The only downside of doing this is that the call will "cost" more and you'll be inturrupted every five minutes to deposit more money.

10288 is the long distance code for AT&T. If you want to attempt to use this code for a local call, there are three different ways to try it. If you lived in the 618 area code and were dialing 254-4999, you could try the following formats:

10288-254-4999

10288-1-254-4999

10288-1-618-254-4999

Sometimes it works, sometimes it doesn't. It all depends on the phone you're using and the local phone company. Before attempting a local call, please go back to the main menu and read the "security risks" section.

PROBLEMS MAKING YOUR PHONE CALL WORK?

Ocasionally you'll run into problems while trying to red box a phone call, especially if you're just starting out. First of all, make sure your red box is working correctly. The troubleshooting sections for each individual red box are located at the bottom of those pages.

"I'm dialing a long distance number but the phone can't hear my red box tones!" This is usually because the local phone company has modified that pay phone so that no sound may enter the mouthpiece until real money is deposited. There are several different ways around this:

1. Wait for a live operator to come on. Tell her that you're ready to deposit your money. She'll ask you for the amount and you box in the coins, very slowly so that it sounds like you're really putting in money.

2. Deposit a real nickel first, then box in the rest of your money. That first nickel will cause the phone to trust you for the rest of it. This rarely works, but has saved me a few times.

3. Deposit a real $3.15 (or whatever) at the beginning of the call. When you're inturrupted every few minutes for money after that, you can usually box that in. This is only recommended if you're really desperate or really stupid. It'd be much more cost-effective to just go find another phone.

4. Bypass the pay phone altogether. If the wires to the pay phone are exposed, splice into them and