computer phone service

Phreaking is a slang term coined to describe the activity of a subculture of people who study, experiment with, or exploit telephones, the telephone company, and systems connected to or composing the Public Switched Telephone Network (PSTN) for the purposes of hobby or utility. The term "phreak" is a portmanteau of the words "phone" and "freak. " It may also refer to the use of various audio frequencies to manipulate a phone system. "Phreak", "phreaker", or "phone phreak" are names used by and towards people who participate in phreaking. It is often considered similar, and therefore grouped in category with computer hacking. This is sometimes called the H/P culture (with H standing for Hacking and P standing for Phreaking). The Remote Access Service lets users connect to a remote computer over phone lines, so.

History of phreaking

The precise origin of phone phreaking is disputed, as there is no one defining event when it started. One could argue that the inception of the telephone could be the origin of phreak-like experimentation. There are also reports of people playing with some of the first automatic switching equipment back in the 1920s. Modern day phreaking, however, is more likely to be traced to the United States in the mid-to-late 1950s when AT&T started introducing fully automatic direct-dial long distance and certain forms of trunking carriers which used in-band signalling. People started playing with the phone system, in a way similar to the way modern day hackers play with the Internet.