Wiretap

This page will help explain several methods of wiretapping. These tutorials were written before the wiki existed, and so were put into text file form. They have no been modified.

Ditto Box

A 'ditto box' is a way of building a DIY mute button into a land-line phone. To read the tutorial, click Wiretap/Ditto.

Direct Wiretap

This one is more dangerous (read: record into tape recorder, not computer, or enjoy ur fried sound card), but is piss easy and gives good sound quality. The tutorial is located here. Caution: Phone lines typically run at 6 volts DC when off hook. Sound cards like 5 volts so this more or less works. But you've _got_ to unplug it before hanging up! Why? When hung up, phone lines bounce up to 48 volts DC, which your sound card is not going to like. Worse, when the phone rings, about 70 volts AC will come slamming into your sound card, and that's pretty much the game, folks. This will blow your sound card and very probably your motherboard right to the moon.

There are a variety of circuits to tap phones that protect your computer all over the Net. But its easier to just walk into Radio Shack, tell them you want to make a recording of your phone calls on your computer, and let them set you up.

Note it's against the law to record unless you generate an audible "beep" every 15 seconds. State laws may vary.