[LINK] Skype beta3, free worldwide conference calls

[Kim Holburn]

On 2006/Nov/10, at 1:34 PM, Richard Chirgwin wrote:
> Kim Holburn wrote:
>> On 2006/Nov/10, at 10:12 AM, Alan L Tyree wrote:
>>> Don't use Skype. Why get locked in to a proprietary format that  
>>> can't
>>> talk to anyone else? Use a SIP based service that is based on open
>>> standards: Gizmo, Sjphone, Xten all work with Free World Dialup and
>>> other SIP providers. Better yet, use a SIP service that is open  
>>> source:
>>> Ekiga which allows multiple registrations.
>>
>> SIP is a real pain to get across some firewalls.  If you have more  
>> than one SIP user on a private subnet you have to have a special  
>> SIP router (like say asterisk).  SIP and H323 put source and  
>> destination IPs in the data rather than in the header like all  
>> normal IP protocols.
>>
>> Skype on the pother hand is proprietary but it just works.  It  
>> works across most firewalls.  If you have a firewall your system  
>> is never promoted to supernode status.
> Apples to apples, Kim. I run an Asterisk server where I work,  
> because there are multiple extensions, and because it's a business  
> environment. So it's a "pain" to get it across the firewall? - I  
> don't see that as a disadvantage. Once it's set up, it's no longer  
> a pain.

It means you have to have someone with very specialist knowledge to  
set it up.  That immediately puts it out of the range of most users.   
You have to add a special router for SIP, H323?  On top of your IP  
routers?  SIP is a protocol tacked on top of IP by ISDN engineers who  
didn't/don't understand IP.  All that routing capability is already  
built in to IP.  Why do we need a whole additional set of  
infrastructure on top of IP that does what IP already does?  That's  
stupid and costly and it's why skype is so successful.  Make an audio/ 
video conferencing standard do that and it would clean up.

> The second point is that we can (and do) run incoming PSTN lines  
> into the Asterisk server as well as a VoIP service.
>
> The third point is that I don't consider it particularly secure to  
> have a private "black box" protocol crossing the firewall. I know  
> enough to know what I don't know - and I don't know how to  
> distinguish "real" Skype traffic from something that's learned how  
> to use Skype to cross firewalls. So I stick with what I understand,  
> as best as possible. A network and security consultant may be able  
> to let Skype onto a business network with confidence; I can't.

These days you have to run an IDS which can tell.  You'd be safer  
learning to do that than learning to configure asterisk ;-)

> Finally: why would you try to compare Asterisk to Skype in the  
> first instance? They're designed for completely different purposes.

I didn't, I was comparing skype to SIP.   Asterisk is just one of the  
router options you have to use with SIP.


--
Kim Holburn
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