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In S01E05 the police finally gets all the paperwork to clone Dee's pager.

I'm wondering how exactly they cloned the pager, as they had him in earlier episodes but did lack the paperwork. Was it possible to get a clone, through the pager company e.g. without having to actually clone Dee's pager? They didn't bring him in again.

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  • You need to ask one question per question. I've answered the first. Can you spit out the 2nd to a new question?
    – Tetsujin
    Commented Aug 23, 2017 at 8:37
  • Will do as soon as I'm able to post again.
    – idkfa
    Commented Aug 23, 2017 at 8:48

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Old analog phones & pagers had a kind of "MAC address" that would identify them. They didn't change after every connection like they do these days, they were fixed for the life of the device.

It was a pretty simple job to give 2 devices the same 'address'. I had my carphone cloned to my mobile (illegal-ish but I used it fairly:)

The network would only know you'd done it if it was used in 2 disparate locations in a short period.
As this was a legal tap, the network would know not to flag it.

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  • Aren't modern MAC addresses fixed? There are sites that allow you to look them up and determine what the device is.
    – Prometheus
    Commented Jan 13, 2021 at 20:02
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    Sure they are… until you change them - howtogeek.com/192173/…
    – Tetsujin
    Commented Jan 13, 2021 at 20:04
  • Ah I see. Also I'm curious, what was the advantage gained from making your carphone address the same as your mobile?
    – Prometheus
    Commented Jan 13, 2021 at 20:05
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    These days phones change their MAC address for every new unknown connection, to actively prevent tracking. Back in the 90's it meant I had 2 phones with the same phone number & the network couldn't tell them apart. The teeny mobile had an antenna power of idk 0.1W & the car had 5W. In those days antennae could be 25 miles apart, that meant I could get signal 'in the middle of nowhere'… which in those days was pretty much anywhere out of town. Things were a lot different back then ;)
    – Tetsujin
    Commented Jan 13, 2021 at 20:07

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