Beige box

In phone phreaking, a beige box is a device used to illegally use another person's phone line. It is technically equivalent to a telephone company lineman's handset -- a telephone fitted with clips to attach it to a line. Beige boxes can be usually constructed with easily available materials, such as a simple corded telephone, a soldering iron, and a pair of alligator clips. Usually a switch is added in order to turn the microphone off, so as not to introduce excess noise into the line. Although it is generally not illegal or possess or construct a beige box, it IS illegal to use them, because this violates wiretapping laws and the user is tampering with telephone company equipment. Instructions for constructing a beige box can be found in many places on the internet, as well as instructions on to make other phreaking boxes. Alternative beige boxes can also be built by connecting alligator clips to an RJ-11 jack. This method does not require modification of a telephone -- any kind of telephone can be used.

See also: red box, blue box

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In consumer computer products, a beige box is a generic personal computer -- thus, an Intel PC as opposed to a video game console, a Macintosh, or a Unix workstation. The term is also sometimes used to distinguish generic "clone" PCs from name-brand models such as Dell or Hewlett-Packard. Most generic PC cases are in fact beige in color.