Recently, RH popped out over the fence
around uk.telecom.voip and said...
|> |Not all universities are against skype being run by students
|> Name one that's NOT against it.
|I googled it it and found a few, true not as many as those which have banned
|it, but some are happy amyway
Read the horror story in this NG from Phil Thompson... Any network admin
that doesn't ban Skype is at risk of this.
You can't ask the Skype category users - by definition not able to do so
- to dig deep in their Skype configuration and disable the "Supernode"
option (that's enabled by default). They don't know, they don't
understand and they don't care.
Just one careless user can make all the network he's on totally useless.
TWOTHOUSANDFIVEHUNDRED connections to a PC!!! This is DDOS, and is going
to be a CRIME in UK, when the new Computer Crime bill goes through.

|IMHO yahoo and MSN are cross connecting because of SKYPE's business model.
|They relise
|that skype is so far ahead, that they will be left behind if the only
|competitors are lots of smaller units.
??? Sorry, what did you say? Well, I don't know on the planet you live,
but here on Earth, just MSN userbase is WAY larger than the Skype
userbase.

|Not best for customers maybe, but if SKYPE was integrated with others then
|people using msn or yahoo would have no need to install and run SKYPE
One word: Monopoly. I.t. d.o.e.s.n.'.t. w.o.r.k.!.

|I am sorry but Skype is way cheaper than other VOIP systems, a couple ofquid
|for a headset is all that most people use, true thecomputer has to be on,
|but you keep missing the point that skype users are happy with this, skype
|users on the whole are not looking for a phone replacement system just a
|cheap and easy to use system when they are on the computer.
Well, Skype users are happy with this... so be it. But they don't have
to complain if their PC or their connection is bogged up, or if their
provider disconnects them because they're killing the network segment.

|Got to agree skype out costs are not the cheapest, but from a business point
|of view if skype makes a decent profit, it is earnered. You also have to
|remember that as skype is the biggest VOIP service around that a lot of
|people they will call will be on skype already, in my case I have lots of
|friends and family on skype (through no prompting from me) but know only 6
|or so on VOIP and only 2 of which on the same network or can be called via
|free cross network calls
1) Again Skype IT'S NOT VoIP. Voice over IP HAS to be (by international
standards definition organizations like ISO) SIP or H323. Actually IAX
(born with Asterix) will probably be accepted as a further protocol.
2) Number is not strength, especially when the application is ill-
engineered like Skype.
3) I'm not at war against Skype, I'm advising you that it's a floating
mine.

|> How could you be so wrong, it's impossible to say. I can do THE SAME
|> with a free SIP phone software on my laptop wherever you can do your
|> things with Skype.
|> The SIP (Session Initiation Protocol) takes care of everything, you
|> don't have to configure a firewall to go through, except where the
|> administrator EXPRESSLY is blocking outgoing traffic of any nature.
|> Any stateful inspection firewall will let your traffic go through
|> because it's originated FROM a device on the internal side of the
|> network.
|> You see, I can do the same as you (actually more than you); I'm a better
|> user because I was forced to know more; I'm spending less money; I'm
|> using open standards; I'm more environmentally friendly because my
|> equipment uses less energy; my equipment is cheaper and more reliable; I
|> have a redundant service (if a provider is down, there are at least
|> other three I can use); my three year old daughter is calling her
|> grandpa in Italy with a push of a button on a basic phone (and doesn't
|> hurt my pocket).
|> See my point?
|I see your point, shame you don't see mine. like lots of techy people you
|seem blinkered
|to the real world and real life applications. I might say I had the views
|as you in the past but real life appilcation has changed me.
Oh, blimey! If you buy a Netgear VoIP router from Sipgate it comes
preconfigured, and it's plug & play, no configuration of anything
whatsoever. Plug the ADSL modem network cable <here>, the PC network
cable <here>, the power adaptor in the wall socket and in the router
<here>, a plain bog standard phone <here>, and it's done. A plumber can
do it.
Less complicated than a download, an installation and a configuration of
a software with your credentials, and fiddling with headphones & mic and
their levels, echo cancellation, full duplex audio card, new drivers for
the same... You are the geek, not me!

|SIP VOIP is great, it can do things so much more than SKYPE, but SKYPE in
|*SOME* is better,
|Like you I try not to use SKYPE, believe it or not, I have a nice asterisk
|systems, multiple lines in and ATA and VOIP Phones, could not live with out
|them.
|But Skype has 2 main advantages
|1- It is p*ss easy to install, computer phobic people can install it, with a
|SIP hardware it is difficult, how do I know? I have had to help lots of
|people install their units, true once they have it they love it. Problem is
|people are impatient, if they can not get something running quickly they
|lose interest, skype works pretty much out of the box
See before... You're wrong.

|2- User Base. Like I said I have family abroad, and they all pretty much
|(through their only circle of friends) got into skype, with no prompting
|from me, true I could give them all a small ATA so I could call them, but
|they would still need skype to speak to their own network of people
Your experience is irrelevant, Skype DOESN'T have a large user base, get
the facts: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Instant...ging#User_base
100 million of downloads, a peak of 7 million users online. Should be
AOL (AIM) Microsoft and Yahoo scared of Skype? Hmmm... I don't think so.

|Lack of standalone hardware snd open protocol means it is not as versatile
|as SIP, but it does mean that teh core product can change and improve, to
|try and fix security holes that might pop up
It's the proprietary protocol and enclosed userbase approach that will
kill Skype. It's been bought by eBay, to complement the services they
have for the barters, so they can chat away the time waiting for the
auction to end... :-)

|> It's not useless, it's just all the hype around it that makes me sick,
|> like all the fuss with iPods and PS3 and whatever.
|> Hype, hype and nothing else, based on a sidereal space void.
|I say the Hype around it is justified, unlike PS3 and other product where
|the product is hyped by marketing companies, most of SKYPEs Hype has been
|user led and word of mouth, like google in the beginning
Don't buy shares, I'm forecasting a bleak future for it. The business
model is totally flawed.

--
ßødincµs²°°° - The Y2K Druid
----------------------------
Law 42 on computing: Anything that could go wron@~ ¬
$: Access Violation -- Core dumped