THINGS I WILL COVER IN THIS ISSUE

What is exchange scanning?

Exchange scanning is simply calling every number in an exchange and seeing if anything interesting can be found. For example, if your phone company's billing office's number is (666)-555-0000, you could call all numbers in (666)-555-xxxx (that would be 555-0000 to 555-9999) looking for cool shit.

Hackers usually exchange scan to find carriers. We phone losers do it to find not only carriers, but sweep tones, weird recordings, and other fun things. Most of the good stuff is in xxx-00xx or xxx-99xx. If your goal is simply to find a carrier, you might want to skip this file, and go use a WarDialer.

What is a WarDialer?

WarDialers automatically exchange scan and look for carriers. I won't get into this, because you could just read the help file for the WarDialer to figure it out.

How do I exchange scan by hand?

You can do it with much ease while you watch the Simpsons by using the chart I made (well, stole from  Phone Losers of America). Say you want to scan everything in (444)-343-9900 to (444)-343-9999; In the first box labeled "Area Code=_____" you would put 444, in "Prefix=_____" put 343, and in "xx=_____" put 99. Then put in the date in the remaining space.

The first box would be for 343-9900, the second for 9901, etc. Starting on the next row would be 343-9910, 343-9911, etc. For each thing you find, fill in the appropriate box, telling what you found. I usually use letters to represent different findings, like "D" means the number has been disconnected, "R" means it just rings and there's no answer, "B" means busy, etc. Make a few copies of this chart and have fun with it.

Exchange Scanning Chart (Courtesy of PLA)