Phone phreakers use a beige box, a device used to access another’s phone line in order to crack it. A technical equivalent to a beige box would be a telephone company lineman’s handset—a telephone fit with clips to attach it to a line.

Beige boxes are relatively easy to make. Ingredients include a simple corded telephone, a soldering iron, and a pair of alligator clips. To reduce the amount of noise in the line, a switch is often added. Beige boxes can also be made by connecting alligator clips to an RJ-11 jack. Having beige boxes is not illegal, but using them to make free telephone calls at someoneÂ’s expense is illegal, according to current North American wiretapping laws.

See Also: Phreaking; Switch.