> |I have to admit that I use skype, the main reason is that it will get
> |through a university firewall that blocks voipcheap. As my daughter is
> |no longer in halls I could go back to voipcheap, but skype is easy to
> |support; well it just appears to work.
> This statement says it all. Let me examine it...
>
> 1) "...it will get through a university firewall that block
> voipcheap...". = Security hole + Uni network policy violation + higher
> bill to the Uni (that's paid with MY taxes, too).
> I don't like the sound of it, and the Uni network admins either.

Traditional SIP is problematic due to ports which need to be open and
routing of these ports
where as SKYPE is designed go through firewall systems.

Not all universities are against skype being run by students

> 2) "...skype is esay to support..." = Like early MacOS, everything was
> concealed to the user "because it's better they don't know". Wrong
> business model. Open source OS based PCs are outnumbering Macs, and Open
> Source OSs are around by 1/10th than MacOS.

I can bet that is probably true with china and a few other countries pushing
linux, at government level
but i can think of no one apart from overt techy people who prefer Linux
over XP, the costs of linux
can be way higher in terms of costs of time than XP. In regard to Macs this
is a small market
limited by hardware choice, IMHO OS X is the best user level OS based on
unix/linux, like XP it tends to just work, no need to run compile scripts
just to install a small peiece of software and no need to go round hunting
web forums trying to find the answers

> Skype is an expensive toy (to run securely) and I'm - again - too old to
> play around.
> A hundred quid for an all-in-one ADSL VoIP Wireless router (AVM Fritz!
> Box Fon WLAN) and everything is served: 4 VoIP lines, 2 wired
> extensions, broadband with traffic shaping, wired / wireless internet
> throughout the house.
> I'm using business grade VoIP telephony since August 2005, and a month
> ago I ditched my landline. Never been happier.
> Do this with Skype.

Again you have failed to see the purpose and advantages of skype. I agree
you have a nice setup which could not easily be done by skype, But I also
use SKYPE, mainly so people can contact me free of charge but it is also
great when travelling, If I am staying at a hotel with a wifi connection, I
can just load up skype and talk, impossible usually with SIP, same if I go
to friends house or internet cafe, I can usually just run software and go,
no fiddling with someone elses router.

People have different needs, A multi million pound F1 car has the most
modern uptodate engine and fancy gearboxes and goes superfast and is
technically better than a ford focus, But is useless for most drivers needs
living an average city life. And if skype was such a bad useless product no
one would be using it