GTE Data Services / Explorer Post / "Lewis"

MMWXkoc;,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,;:lx0WMM
WXx:,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,;oKW
Kl,,,,,:odxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxo:lxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxccdxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxoc,,,,,cO
o,,,,;dKWMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMW0oOWMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMWxdNMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMWXx:,,,,c
:,,,,oXMMMMMMNK0000000000000xcd00000KWMMMMMMMWNK000OodNMMMMMMNK0000000000Ol,,,,;
:,,,,xWMMMMMWk;,,,,,,,,,,,;;,,,,,;;;c0MMMMMMMNd;,,;;,oNMMMMMWk:,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,;
:,,,,xWMMMMMWx,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,;OMMMMMMMXl,,,,,,oNMMMMMWO:;;;;;;;;;;;,,,,,;
:,,,,xWMMMMMWx;oOOOOOOOOOOOOkc,,,,,,;OMMMMMMMXl,,,,,,oNMMMMMMNKKKKKKKKKKKKd;,,,,
:,,,,xWMMMMMWx:kWMMMMMMMMMMMNd,,,,,,;OMMMMMMMXo,,,,,,oNMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMWO;,,,,
:,,,,xWMMMMMWx;cddddxKWMMMMMNd,,,,,,;OMMMMMMMXo,,,,,,oNMMMMMWKxdddddddddddl,,,,;
:,,,,xWMMMMMWx,,',,,;kWMMMMMNd,,,,,,;OMMMMMMMXo,,,,,,oNMMMMMWk;',,,,,,,,,'',,,,,
:,,,,dNMMMMMW0ollooodKWMMMMMNo,,,,,,;OMMMMMMMXo,,,,,,oXMMMMMMKdlloollooool:,,,,;
l,,,,c0WMMMMMMWWWWWWWMMMMMMW0c,,,,,,;OMMMMMMMXl,,,,,,c0WMMMMMMWWWWWWWWWWWXd,,,,:
k:,,,,cx0XNNNNNNNNNNNNNNNXKxc,,,,,,,;kNNNNNNN0l,,,,,,,cx0XNNNNNNNNNNNNNXOo;,,,;d
NOc,,,,,;:ccccccccccccccc:;,,,,,,,,,,:ccccccc:;,,,,,,,,,;:cccccccccccc::,,,,,:xN
MWXkl;,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,;cxKWM
MMMWNOdc;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;cokXWMMM

[https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/GTE]

It's been almost three years since I first wrote about my mid-1990s telephone system hacking
forays and figured I'd give some more writing a go.

As I wrote earlier, I got into BBS'ing through a group of nerds that I met in high school.
Being an ambitious teenager meant eventually working my way into what was called
the "elite BBS scene."

[By the way, when I speak of BBS'ing, I'm talking about DOS computers and land-line phones
and modems and pure ASCII-based terminal programs.  This is all pre-Internet stuff.  I have
written separately on Gopher about BBS'ing.]

Anyway, I for some reason became determined that I was going to get on just about every
"elite" or "underground" BBS in my home area.  I think it was sort of like a Pokemon
thing -- collect them all.  I also became determined that I was going to meet lots and lots
of the people from these BBS'es in person.  This eventually led to having a huge number of
local friends with shared interests that I hung out with on a very regular basis.

One of the most instrumental people that I met was someone that I will call Steve.  He was
the same age as me and ran a local underground BBS.  My computer became infected with a
virus after downloading a file from his BBS and I became concinved that he had done this
to me on purpose.  This was before I had met him in-person.  My computer became totally
unusable.  I believe that I had to do the dreaded "re-format" and start from scratch.
I was so mad at this guy (that I had never even met before) that I honest to God asked him
where he lived and rode my bicycle like an hour to his house one night with a knife in my
pocket.  I have no idea what I was thinking regarding the knife.  Anyway, I pretty much
became best friends with him immediately upon meeting him.

Steve was another kid in our home area ("area code") that was really outgoing and knew a lot
of other local "elite" BBS'ers.  He also had a car.  We were all like 15 or 16 years old at
this point and having a friend with his very own car was amazing.  Steve would come and pick
me up at home all the time and we've drive all around the county and the next county hanging
out with other elite BBS'ers.

One of the people that Steve ultimately introduced me to was a very unusual but great kid that
I'm going to call Jack.  Jack lived in the next county over and, in addition to being into
computer hacking and computer viruses, was into all sorts of stuff that a lot of us either
weren't into or wished we were into: drugs, "raves", girls, etc.

Jack also happened to be a member of a local Explorer Post run by the local telephone company, GTE.
Specifically, it was run by a very large division of GTE called GTE Data Services (GTEDS).  GTE was
one of the largest (if not *the* largest) "non-Bell" telephone companies in the United States and
would later merge with Bell Atlantic to become Verizon.  It also was the monopoly telephone company
for all of Tampa Bay, Florida where I grew up.  By the way, these monopolies were called
Incumbent Local Exchange Carriers (ILECs) in phone company parlance.

I have no idea how Jack became affiliated with the GTEDS Explorer Post but Steve said it would be
awesome for us to drive out and check it out.

Man, the GTEDS Explorer Post was *awesome*.  Especially for an inspiring 16 year old hacker.

Basically, GTE donated tons of its old computer systems to the GTE Explorer Post so that kids like
us could learn from using them.  They had all sorts of weird mainframe computers, VAX computers,
probably some Digital PDP computers, various Unix "minis", etc.  It was crazy weird computers,
hardware, and electronics for about as far as the eye could see.  And it was all open for us to
play on and try to learn from.

The Explorer Post was run by a really nice guy named Lewis who was super keen on the idea that we
were a bunch of "young computer geniuses."  At one point, he said something to Jack like,
"I keep trying to warn these GTE guys that kids like you are going to hack into all of their
systems and do whatever you want with them."  Something to that effect anyway.  I think that
Lewis must have gone into some more detail about the kinds of systems that the phone company ran
and possibly even how they had dial-up modem lines or something.  I know that I remember becoming
really intrigued.  I mean, by this point I had already been reading lots of "textfiles" about
hacking phone company stuff and whatnot.

One thing lead to another and I believe it was that night when Jack was like, "Hey, do you guys
want to go trashing at a local phone company building?"

This is probably the exact moment that marked the starting point for what became an absolute
defining obsession for me that lasted for several years and consumed almost all of my thoughts
during every waking moment during those years.

Of course, our "trashing" expedition took us to a local GTE Central Office (CO) building.
If you read any sort of 1990s "textfiles" on phone hacking then you will certainly come across
many references to the venerable Central Office (CO) building.  Back in those days, just
hearing "C.O." would send shivers down my spine.  Later, I would feel like the pinnacle of
elite when discussing "C.O."'s with my few friends that were "in the know."

Anyway, the CO houses the "telephone switch" and forms part of the central nervous system
of what is called the Public Switched Telephone Network (PSTN).  Even today, in 2023,
your "smartphone" connections are being made through a Mobile Telephone Switching Office (MTSO)
associated with a Central Office (CO).  Keep in mind that most of the national and international
voice and data (including Internet) telecommunications system is still wired, not wireless.
The wireless portion really only accounts for the "last mile" from your wireless device to the
nearest cellular telephone tower.  I know that all of this stuff seems like magic to many people,
but it's really not.  You can drive around and find the actual physical antenna mast and associated
hardware that connects your "smartphone" to the global telecommunications system.

[This reminds me of a great book called "Tubes" by Andrew Blum.  His mission was to learn about the
physical embodiment of the Internet.  Like, "where do the wires lead?"  In one chapter, he finds
himself under the main streets of Manhattan in the middle of the night with a Verizon crew that is
running a new stretch of fiber optic cabling.  One of the Verizon guys says to another, something to
the effect of, "Hey, give me some more gunk.  I've gotta get this cable through."  The author
is like, "Gunk?"  The guys go on to explain how they use this particular substance to help ease
cables through holes or something like that.  The main take away was, your "hyper-moderm" smartphone
has its Internet connection in no small part because union phone company folks are crawling down manholes
in the middle of the night to stretch big heavy physical cables through cramped and dirty spaces.
I suppose that at all times, that time's modern technology has at least partially defined itself by
being able to hide its underlying realities ("implementation") from its users.  The so-called
"black box."  But in reality, deep down enough (no pun intended), it's always made to happen by folks
doing stuff that most of us would never want to get our hands dirty doing.  The Internet takes Gunk.]

Digression on "Tubes" aside...

Hacking into "telephone switches" would become one of the central goals for us ("owning switches").
In the 1990s, "owning" the telephone switches was a bit like "owning" the Internet core routers today.

As you might imagine, especially if you've read a lot of textfiles, 2600 magazine articles, seen
the 1995 movie "Hackers", etc -- the phone companies used to throw out *a lot* of things that they
probably should have never thrown out.  Unshredded.  In dumpsters.  Not behind locked gates.

I think I'll save writing about the loot from our first-ever "dumpster diving" expedition for the
next installment.

CREATED 2023-03-26