| ==Phrack Magazine== |
|
|
| Volume Four, Issue Forty-Three, File 18 of 27 |
|
|
| The LOD Communications Underground H/P BBS Message Base Project: |
| Price Listing of Currently Available Message Bases and Order Form. |
| Holdings List Version #1, 5/15/93 |
|
|
|
|
| This file contains: |
|
|
| - Background information on the project; |
| - Currently completed message bases with prices; and, |
| - Order form and stipulations. |
|
|
| If you have already seen some of the background information contained in the |
| following paragraphs, note that additional information has been added. The aim |
| was to make this file as self-contained as possible. It is approximately seven |
| pages in length (23K) and it should answer all of your questions. |
|
|
|
|
| The Project: |
| ------------ |
|
|
| Throughout history, physical objects have been preserved for posterity for |
| the benefit of the next generation of humans. Cyberspace, however, isn't very |
| physical; data contained on floppy diskettes has a finite lifetime as does the |
| technology to retrieve that data. The earliest underground hacker bulletin |
| board systems operated at a time when TRS-80s, Commodore 64s, and Apple ][s |
| were state-of-the-art. Today, it is difficult to find anyone who has one of |
| these machines in operating condition, not to mention the brain cells left to |
| recall how to operate them. :-( |
|
|
| LOD Communications has created a historical library of the "dark" portion of |
| Cyberspace. The project's goal is to acquire as much information as possible |
| from underground Hack/Phreak (H/P) bulletin boards that were in operation |
| during a decade long period, dating from the beginnings (in 1980/81 with 8BBS |
| and MOM: Modem Over Manhattan) to the legendary OSUNY, Plover-NET, Legion of |
| Doom!, Metal Shop, etc. up through the Phoenix Project circa 1989/90. |
| Currently, messages from over 50 different BBSes have been retrieved, although |
| very few message bases are 100% complete. However, not having a complete "set" |
| does not diminish their value. |
|
|
|
|
| Who Benefits From This Information?: |
| ------------------------------------ |
|
|
| - PARTICIPANTS who were on the various H/P BBSes may want to see their |
| contribution to history or reminisce about the "golden era" of hacking; |
|
|
| - ENTHUSIASTS who came into the "scene" after most of these boards were |
| down may want to see what they missed; |
|
|
| - COMPANIES who may want to see if their (or their competitors') phone |
| systems, computers, or networks were compromised; |
|
|
| - SECURITY PROFESSIONALS/LAW ENFORCEMENT who may want to see what |
| techniques were used to subvert computer security systems; |
|
|
| - SCHOOLS AND UNIVERSITIES (including their libraries) who may want to use |
| the information for research in sociology or computer science as well as |
| for educational purposes in courses such as Computer Law, Computer |
| Ethics, and Computer Security; |
|
|
| - AUTHORS/PRESS who may want to finally get the facts straight about |
| "hackers;" and, |
|
|
| - THE CURIOUS PUBLIC who may want to sneak a peek into the inner realm of |
| the Computer Underground, especially those Restricted Access BBSes and |
| their Private sub-boards where only a small handful of "the best" |
| resided. |
|
|
| Were the individuals involved in the Computer Underground out to start World |
| War III, selling secrets to the Soviets, working with organized crime, |
| conspiring to do evil, or just a bunch of bored teenagers with nothing better |
| to do? How much did they know, and how did they find it out? Did they have |
| the capability to shut down phone service of Area Code portions? Could |
| they ruin someone's credit? Could they "move satellites in the heavens?" |
| Could they monitor packet switching network conversations or YOUR |
| conversations? The answers lie within the messages themselves. |
|
|
|
|
| Why is LODCOM Charging Money For The Message Bases?: |
| ---------------------------------------------------- |
|
|
| As happens with most projects, the effort and monetary investment turned out |
| to be substantially more than originally anticipated. With all of the high- |
| tech equipment available today, people sometimes forget that in the early |
| 1980s, 14.4K baud modems and 250 MB hard drives were just a fantasy for the |
| home computer user. Most messages Lodcom has recovered were downloaded at 300 |
| baud onto 143K disk drives, with each file usually no larger than 15K in size. |
| One could not call a BBS and download the complete message base in 10 minutes |
| and save it into one file. Literally hundreds of man-hours have been spent |
| copying dusty Apple ][ disks, transferring them to IBM (or typing in hard copy |
| versions when electronic versions were unavailable), organizing over one |
| thousand individual files (thus far) according to what BBS the messages were |
| originally posted on, and splicing the files together. Also, after consulting |
| with the appropriate civil liberties organizations and our own legal counsel, |
| a slight editing of the messages (restricted to long distance access codes, |
| phone numbers, and computer passwords) had to be made to ensure that there is |
| nothing illegal contained within the messages. Every effort was made to keep |
| the messages in their pristine condition: 40 columns, ALL CAPS, spelling |
| errors, offensive language, inaccuracies of various kinds, and ALL. |
|
|
| Although a fairly comprehensive collection of the goings-on during a decade |
| of public and private computer underground activity has been accomplished, |
| there are more messages out there. It is our wish to continue to document the |
| History of the Computer Underground. In order to do this, and in order to |
| break even on what resources have already been expended (it is a LOT more than |
| most people realize), a dollar value has been attached to each set of message |
| bases. The dollar values were kept as low as possible and range from $1.00 to |
| $8.00 for each H/P BBS Message Base Set. Without your understanding and |
| support, this effort may not be able to sustain itself long enough to complete |
| the project. A large portion of any profits will be recycled for two other |
| projects in the works, whose aim is to provide additional historical background |
| on the Computer Underground Community. That is, no one involved is quitting |
| their day job :-) |
|
|
| One additional note: For those who purchase the Metal Shop Private Message |
| Base, 100% of the price ($4.00) will be donated to help pay for Craig Neidorf's |
| (Knight Lightning) Legal Defense bills (due to his successful campaign to |
| protect First Amendment rights for electronic publishing, i.e. the PHRACK/E911 |
| case). |
|
|
|
|
| How The Prices Were Determined: |
| ------------------------------- |
|
|
| Prices were determined based on the following considerations: |
|
|
| - The number of years ago that the BBS operated (affected availability); |
|
|
| - The total number of messages compiled (required more time to compile); |
|
|
| - Its popularity and message content (anticipated demand); |
|
|
| - Whether the BBS or portions thereof were deemed "elite" and, therefore, |
| restricted access to a small number of users (affected availability); |
| and, |
|
|
| - An additional factor to account for overhead costs such as diskettes, |
| diskette mailing containers, postage, time to fill orders, etc. |
|
|
|
|
| What Each "Message Base File" Contains: |
| --------------------------------------- |
|
|
| - A two page general message explaining H/P BBS terminology and format. |
|
|
| - The BBS Pro-Phile: A historical background and description of the BBS |
| either written by the original system operator(s) or those who actually |
| called the BBS when it was in operation (it took months to track the |
| appropriate people down and get them to write these specifically for |
| this project; lesser known BBSes may not contain a Pro-Phile); |
|
|
| - Messages posted to the BBS (i.e. the Message Base); |
|
|
| - Downloaded Userlists if available; and |
|
|
| - Hacking tutorials a.k.a. "G-Philes" that were on-line if available. |
|
|
|
|
| It is anticipated that most people who are interested in the message bases |
| have never heard of a lot of the BBS names shown in the listing. If you have |
| seen one set of messages, you have NOT seen them ALL. Each system had a unique |
| personality, set of users, and each has something different to offer. If you |
| decide to order the minimum, we recommend that you mix a high-priced base |
| ($7.00 or above) with a couple of medium-priced bases ($4.00 to $6.00) and a |
| few lower-priced bases ($1.00 to $3.00). This will provide you with a feel for |
| what was happening over a broad range of years and message quality. Of course, |
| nothing beats the full set (offered at a discount, see order form). |
|
|
| Formats the Message Base Files are Available in: |
| ------------------------------------------------ |
|
|
| Due to the large size of the Message Base Files, they will be compressed |
| using the format of your choice. Please note that Lodcom does NOT include the |
| compression/decompression program (PKZIP, PAK, etc.). ASCII (decompressed) |
| files will be provided for $2.00 extra to cover additional diskette and |
| shipping costs. The files are available for: |
|
|
| - IBM (5.25 or 3.5 inch) |
| - AMIGA (3.5 inch) |
| - APPLE MACINTOSH (3.5 inch) |
| - PAPER versions can be ordered but cost triple (due to increased shipping |
| costs, time to print order, and messages being in 40 column format and |
| therefore wasting lots of paper...save those trees!). Paper versions |
| take twice the time to deliver but are laser printed. |
|
|
| Orders are expected to arrive at the requesters' physical mail box in 2-4 |
| weeks upon receipt of the order. |
|
|
|
|
| FAQs (Frequently Asked Questions): |
| ---------------------------------- |
|
|
| QUESTION: How long will these Message Base Files be available? |
|
|
| ANSWER: We cannot say for sure. This is an ongoing effort and your support |
| will allow us to continue until we are satisfied with having |
| recovered the last decent scraps of messages out there. Assuming |
| there is a demand for these messages, all H/P BBSes of WORTH (i.e. |
| NON-"codez" and NON-"warez" systems) are expected to be offered by |
| the end of the Summer of 1993. A Guesstimate of what will be |
| offered is 80 to 100 Message Bases, half of which will be rather |
| partial. Orders are expected to be filled up until the end of 1993 |
| although this may change. Regardless, we will send out |
| notification well in advance of ceasing operations. |
|
|
| QUESTION: "Can I help out? I have some old messages" (either on a C64, |
| Apple, IBM [best for us], or printout). |
|
|
| ANSWER: Contact us ASAP! We will work out an equitable agreement depending |
| on the quantity, quality, format, and "ancientness" of the |
| messages. Your contribution will not go unrecognized. |
|
|
| QUESTION: Say if I purchase BBS "X" which has 100 messages and the next |
| Version of your Price Listing shows BBS "X" now has 200 messages, |
| do I have to pay the for the first 100 all over again if I want |
| the other 100 messages? |
|
|
| ANSWER: No. If a small number of additional messages are added, they will |
| be sent for the price of a diskette and postage only, i.e. the |
| information will be free. If a larger number such as 100 new |
| messages are added, then if you previously purchased the message |
| base, the additional messages will be discounted. Those who pay |
| the Commercial Rate (corporations, government, etc.) will receive |
| updates of the purchased Volume for FREE regardless of how many new |
| messages there are, and LODCOM also pays for the postage and |
| diskette(s). |
|
|
| QUESTION: What if I purchase the minimum order now and, when the next |
| Version of the price list is released, I want to get more Message |
| Bases? Do I have to still pay the $20.00 minimum? |
|
|
| ANSWER: No. If you are a previous customer, the minimum is cut in half, |
| that is, $10.00. Commercial customers who bought Volume #1 (the |
| current "Complete Set"), are obviously not obligated to purchase |
| the added Message Bases (the next Volume). |
|
|
| QUESTION: I would really like to get a feel for what one or two of the |
| boards were like before I order them. Can I get more info? |
|
|
| ANSWER: Yes. A Sample of Actual Messages is available by performing the |
| following, so long as you have TELNET access to the Internet: |
|
|
| Telnet to: 198.67.3.2 [IP Address for PHANTOM.COM] |
| Type: mindvox [To enter the Mindvox system] |
| login as: guest [To look around] |
| At prompt: finger lodcom [To see our Sample Messages File] |
|
|
| If you do not have TELNET access to the Internet, AND your host will NOT |
| "bounce" a 50K file, Lodcom will send you the Sample Messages File if you |
| specifically request it. |
|
|
|
|
| The Price List: |
| --------------- |
|
|
| LOD Communications (c) 1993: Price List of Hack/Phreak BBS Message Bases |
| ---------------------------------------------------------------------------- |
| BBS NAME A/C SYSOP(S) # MSGS DATES KBYTES PRICE |
| ---------------------------------------------------------------------------- |
| Alliance BBS 618 Phantom Phreaker 113 2/09/86 - 215 $ 3.00 B |
| Doom Prophet G,P 6/30/86 |
|
|
| Black Ice Private 703 The Highwayman 880 12/1/88 - 580 $ 7.00 B |
| P,U 5/13/89 |
|
|
| Broadway Show/ 718 Broadway Hacker 180 9/29/85 - 99 $ 3.00 B |
| Radio Station BBS 12/27/85 |
|
|
| CIA BBS 201 CIA Director 30 5/02/84 - 30 $ 1.00 |
| 6/08/84 |
|
|
| C.O.P.S. 305 Mr. Byte-Zap 227 11/5/83 - 196 $ 4.00 B |
| The Mechanic G,R,U 7/16/84 |
|
|
| Face To Face 713 Montressor 572 11/26/90 - 400 $ 2.00 B |
| Doc Holiday * 12/26/90 |
|
|
| Farmers Of Doom 303 Mark Tabas 41 2/20/85 - 124 $ 2.00 B |
| G 3/01/85 |
|
|
| Forgotten Realm 618 Crimson Death 166 3/08/88 - 163 $ 3.00 B |
| 4/24/88 |
|
|
| Legion Of Doom! 305 Lex Luthor 194 3/19/84 - 283 $ 6.00 B |
| Paul Muad'Dib * G,P,U 11/24/84 |
|
|
| Metal Shop Private 314 Taran King 520 4/03/86 - 380 $ 4.00 BD |
| Knight Lightning P,R,U 5/06/87 |
|
|
| OSUNY 914 Tom Tone 375 7/9/82 - 368 $ 8.00 B |
| Milo Phonbil * G,U 4/9/83 |
|
|
| Phoenix Project 512 The Mentor 1118 7/13/88 - 590 $ 4.00 B |
| Erik Bloodaxe * G,R 2/07/90 |
|
|
| Plover-NET 516 Quasi Moto 346 1/14/84 - 311 $ 5.00 B |
| Lex Luthor * G 5/04/84 |
|
|
| Safehouse 612 Apple Bandit 269 9/15/83 - 251 $ 4.00 B |
| G,U 5/17/84 |
|
|
| Sherwood Forest I 212 Magnetic Surfer 92 5/01/84 - 85 $ 2.00 B |
| P,U 5/30/84 |
|
|
| Sherwood Forest ][ 914 Creative Cracker 100 4/06/84 - 239 $ 3.00 B |
| Bioc Agent 003 * G 7/02/84 |
|
|
| Split Infinity 408 Blue Adept 52 12/21/83 - 36 $ 1.00 B |
| 1/21/84 |
|
|
| Twilight Phone ??? System Lord 17 9/21/82 - 24 $ 1.00 |
| 1/09/83 |
|
|
| Twilight Zone/ 203 The Marauder 108 2/06/85 - 186 $ 3.00 B |
| Septic Tank Safe Cracker * G,U 7/24/86 |
|
|
| WOPR 617 Terminal Man 307 5/15/84 - 266 $ 6.00 B |
| The Minute Man * G,U 1/12/85 |
| _____________________________________________________________________________ |
|
|
| NOTES: In SYSOP(S) column, * indicates remote sysop. |
|
|
| In #msgs column, P indicates that the BBS was Private, R indicates BBS |
| was public but restricted access sub-board(s) are included, G indicates |
| that SOME (or maybe all) of the G-files written by the sysop and/or |
| files that were available on the BBS are included, U indicates that a |
| BBS Userlist (typically undated) is included. |
|
|
| DATES column shows the starting and ending dates for which messages |
| were buffered (and therefore available) although there may be some gaps |
| in the chronological order. |
|
|
| KBYTES column shows size of complete file containing messages, g-files, |
| userlist, etc. COST column indicates current cost of message base in |
| U.S. Dollars, "B" indicates that a "BBS Pro-Phile" was written and is |
| included, "D" indicates that 100% of all orders for that BBS (Metal |
| Shop Private) will be donated to help pay for Craig Neidorf's (Knight |
| Lightning) Legal Defense bills. |
|
|
| LODCOM is currently organizing and splicing messages from over 30 more H/P |
| BBSes [shown below] and, as the files are completed and/or as additional |
| messages are procured for the above systems, updates of this listing will be |
| released. Next release is expected some time in JUNE of 1993: Modem Over |
| Manhattan (MOM), 8BBS (213), Mines of Moria (713), Pirates Cove (516) sysop: |
| BlackBeard, Catch-22 (617) sysop: Silver Spy, Phreak Klass 2600 (806) sysop: |
| The Egyptian Lover, Blottoland (216) sysop: King Blotto, Osuny 2 (a.k.a. The |
| Crystal Palace) (914), The Hearing Aid, Split Infinity (408), (303) sysop: The |
| ShadowMaster, ShadowSpawn (219) sysop: Psychic Warlord, IROC (817) sysop: The |
| Silver Sabre, FreeWorld II (301) sysop: Major Havoc, Planet Earth, Ripco (312) |
| sysop: Dr. Ripco, Hackers Heaven (217) sysop: Jedi Warrior, Demon Roach |
| Underground (806) sysop: Swamp Ratte, Stronghold East Elite (516) sysop: Slave |
| Driver, Pure Nihilism, 5th Amendment (713) sysop: Micron, Newsweek Elite (617) |
| sysop: Micro Man, Lunatic Labs (415) sysop: The Mad Alchemist, Laser Beam |
| (314), Hackers Den (718) sysop: Red Knight, The Freezer (305) sysop: Mr. Cool, |
| The Boca Harbour (305) sysop: Boca Bandit, The Armoury (201) sysop: The Mace, |
| Digital Logic's Data Center (305) sysop: Digital Logic, Asgard (201), The KGB, |
| Planet Earth (714), PBS (702), Lost City of Atlantis sysop: The Lineman, and |
| more. |
|
|
|
|
| Hacking/Phreaking Tutorials a.k.a. "G-Philes": |
| ---------------------------------------------- |
|
|
| Along with the above H/P BBS Message Bases, LODCOM has collected many of the |
| old "philes" that were written and disseminated over the years. A list of all |
| of them would take up too much space here, however, we can tell you that the |
| majority are NOT files that were originally written for electronic newsletters |
| such as Phrack, PHUN, ATI, etc. (with the perhaps obvious exception of the |
| LOD/H Technical Journal). Those files/newsletters are readily available from |
| other sources. This hodgepodge of files includes files from Bioc Agent 003, |
| Legion of Doom members, and many others that somehow fell out of widespread |
| circulation. A Table of Contents of the collection is included but the |
| tutorials are all grouped together in four large files of approximately 250K |
| each. This collection will have additions with each update of this file. See |
| the order form for the price (price will go up as more files are added). |
|
|
|
|
| The Order Form: |
| --------------- |
|
|
| - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - C U T - H E R E - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - |
|
|
| LOD Communications H/P BBS Message Base ORDER FORM |
| ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~ |
|
|
| PERSONAL RATE: Due to the economics involved in diskettes, disk mailing |
| containers, snail mail costs, and time to fill orders, a MINIMUM ORDER of |
| $20.00 is required for all personal requests. If all 20 message bases are |
| ordered (containing 5700+ messages), the cost is discounted to $39.00; if you |
| order $20.00 worth (the minimum) or more, you get $5.00 worth in addition as a |
| discount. That is, pay for $20.00 and get $25.00 worth of message bases. |
|
|
| COMMERCIAL RATE: Corporations, Universities, Libraries, and Government |
| Agencies must order the complete set (Volume #1) and pay a higher rate. For |
| Price Listing Version #1 Released 5/15/93 (20 boards total), the price is |
| $99.00 (note that new messages that surface for any BBS purchased will be sent |
| completely FREE of ANY additional charge). |
|
|
| H/P BBS Names: ____________________________________________________________ |
|
|
| [Write: COMPLETE ____________________________________________________________ |
| SET if you want |
| all messages] ____________________________________________________________ |
|
|
|
|
| "G-Phile" Collection Version #1 (Optional): $____________ ($10.00 Personal) |
| ($25.00 Commercial) |
|
|
| Disk Format/Type of Computer: _____________________________________ |
| (Please be sure to specify diskette size [5.25" or 3.5"] and high/low density) |
|
|
| File Archive Method (.ZIP [preferred], .ARJ, .LHZ, .Z, .TAR) ____________ |
| (ASCII [Non-Compressed] add $2.00 to order) |
|
|
| Texas Residents add 8% Sales Tax. |
| If outside North America please add $5.00 for Shipping & Handling. |
|
|
| Total Amount (In U.S. Dollars): $ ___________ |
|
|
| Payment Method: Check or Money Order please. |
| Absolutely NO Credit Cards, even if it's yours :-) |
|
|
| By purchasing these works, the Purchaser agrees to abide by all applicable U.S. |
| Copyright Laws to not distribute or reproduce, electronically or otherwise, in |
| part or in whole, any part of the Work(s) without express written permission |
| from LOD Communications. |
|
|
| Send To: |
| Name: _____________________________________ |
|
|
| Organization: _____________________________________ (If applicable) |
|
|
| Street: _____________________________________ |
|
|
| City/State/Zip: _____________________________________ |
|
|
| Country: _____________________________________ |
|
|
| E-mail address: _____________________________________ (If applicable) |
|
|
|
|
| PRIVACY NOTICE: The information provided to LOD Communications is used for |
| sending orders and periodic updates to the H/P BBS Message Base Price List. |
| It will NOT be given or sold to any other party. Period. |
|
|
| - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - C U T - H E R E - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - |
|
|
| Remit To: LOD Communications |
| 603 W. 13th |
| Suite 1A-278 |
| Austin, Texas USA 78701 |
|
|
| Lodcom can also be contacted via E-mail: lodcom@mindvox.phantom.com |
| Voice Mail: 512-448-5098 |
| _____________________________________________________________________________ |
| End Order File V.1 |
|
|
| LOD Communications: Leaders in Engineering, Social and Otherwise ;) |
|
|
| Email: lodcom@mindvox.phantom.com |
| Voice Mail: 512-448-5098 |
| Snail Mail: LOD Communications |
| 603 W. 13th |
| Suite 1A-278 |
| Austin, Texas USA 78701 |
|
|
