As I drive around, I pick up something that I bet no one else sees - unless they are a hacker/phreaker. First an idea came about to pic-torial telco boxes for newbies, then I stumbled on something really cool. If you don't understand my excitement perhaps you should read this peice about Terrestrial WANs.
"Internet plumbing is made up of LANs, terrestrial (wired) WANs and radio-WANs that are all interconnected with routers. "
http://web1.nps.navy.mil/~budden/lectur ... t_wan.html
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C4ICP concept is not just a military one, it is also used in public utilities - power grid and telco. Telco is important, not just to be able to make a phone call during an emergency, but to keep data flowing between very important enitities like gov and utilities companies. C4ICP stands for Command, Control, Communications, Computers and Intelligence (C4I) Capabilities Planning. Simply, it is a standard of building a hardened, self-sufficent building to hold data and communications equipment.
I found an AT&T Colocation facility.
Stupidly enough they have the AT&T emblem and a sign "Colocation Entrance".
The scary thing is, its right next to this building -
yes, the sign says FBI and MACE, MACE stands for Macomb Area Computer Enforcement (agency)
Whats a colocation facility? Thats where all the switches are for the area telco network. If the FBI wishes to tap in to your phoneline, they will do it here, in the colocation facility. Colocation facilities are also the major arteries for data transmission. Unlike a server farm that would store data, these facilities just handle transmitting data. Banks, Corporations, Gov that rely on time-sensitive data transmission need secure buildings to do this. The C4ICP is a military grade specification to design of these facilities.
How do you find a C4ICP building? These are pretty hard to hide:
a Bunker has to have air conditioning (all those computers, it gets hot!) So they will have state-of-the-art equipment, it has to be stored outside - and it looks like no other AC you've ever seen.
note:enlarge thumbnail and check out the van in my sideview mirror..The next thing thats important is power - the bunker has to have its own power supply in case of blackout - this is why you can still call 911 on your landline in a blackout. These Generators, wether Natural Gas or Diesel, of course have to be hugh and outside - hard to miss the big exaust pipe.
I drove in to the parking lot real quick and got a sign on a door on the corner of the building - it warns about batteries - this could indicate that the building even has a bank of batteries too, - for Uninteruptible Power Supply - this allows computers to keep running in a power outage, while the generator is being primed to run.
Excuse me for not getting closer for the pictures, every where they have warning signs
These C4ICP buildings usually have no windows, this building did, high and tinted. No cameras outside, and the doors look like average commercial doors. A smoking area in the back of the building makes me think that it could be propped open sometimes.
Ok enough of that part of the tutorial
Telco boxes will vary in different countries, so this will apply of course to North America.
I drove to a nearby subdivision, the sub was in process so you could find many unsecured boxes.
In this picture you can see different kinds of boxes, and it is important to know what you are looking at.
As you can see the Telco box is no longer green! The telco neighborhood branch is the light tan box, the big green box is actually the electrical power! The smaller green box is the cable company connection point.
The lock is just a two nuts to turn a latch, but rumors abound about alarms, the telco box could have a switch to trigger an alert to a branch office (maybe not? as how is it transmitted?)
You can look for identifing labels or warning signs, obviously a telco box does not need Shock!/Electrical power warning labels.
The cable company box is obvious, and important too. I found three types of green boxes for the cable company. It is possible to see telco boxes like this too.
but note: "Comcast"Inside the cable company box are the connectors to tap into the cable modem network, a digital network that can carry TCP/IP protocols. Big Fat cables with a coax connector..
In a developing neighborhood, you also have a power source for your hook-up to the remote telco/cable boxes. The Red Cap is covering electrical power, unbridled, and hard to trace. Since these are located near a telco/cable point you might use it for powering your remote 'blackbox sniffer'
Damn... I got a phone call, time to roll again. I will finish this up later!
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Ok, back here is a wrap.
I found another C4ICP type-building, in a small rural town. I spotted it because an AT&T tech was there the other day. The building is obviously smaller as it provides for a smaller town.
The same warning label I found on the outside of the bigger C4ISP building above, identifies the building.
Inside this building is just a smaller colocation facility, it may have batteries for Uninteruptable Power Supply and a natural gas/diesel generator inside. No windows on this building. Expensive looking exaust pipe on the side of the building.
This is a RF Repeater C4ICP facility. It is unmanned, but it has the same specs as the landline/telco facilities. This building could be co-owned by telco/gov/RF providers. This building can be remotely controlled via landline or RF. It has backup power, but maybe no battery UPS. The tan box to the left of the building maybe the generator. The two smaller tan boxes on the side of the building are the AC systems to cool the computer equipment inside. Note: barbwire is tilted outward - to keep people OUT.
The close up you can see it meets the specs of a C4ICP facility, protected by fence and barbwire.
These RF repeaters provide a Mesh-type Network, in emergency - if landlines are down, people can use RF commo to talk to the rest of the world. Repeaters relay the transmission to another facility like this, or a bigger one that can pipe the RF commo to a landline 'internet backbone'. RF networks can help complete broken landline networks.
This is the power grid version of the C4ISP network. This controls the power for the small town.
The building is remote controlled serviceable - it has its own RF antenna and landlines. The little brown building would have the computer control system there. Computer systems would just be monitoring the grid and on/off control. Same security specs with the barbwire.
DNR
