VoIP (was: Proxy websites)

[Jason Spiro]

2006/4/6, Dave Cramer <davec-zxk95TxsVYDyHADnj0MGvQC/G2K4zDHf at public.gmane.org>:
> On a more serious note, does anyone know how skype punches through
> firewalls. This is for a legitimate embedded device application.
Perhaps they use UPnP, or perhaps all conversations go through a
central server (the U.S. Department of Homeland Security would
encourage such a setup I'm sure), or perhaps only conversations where
both users are firewalled go through a central server.

I wonder, too, how Skype conference calls work. A telecom expert by
the name of Isen wrote an excellent paper called Rise of the Stupid
Network (available on the web) which talks about the big telcos. He
explains that a big failing of the telcos is that they make features
(e.g. three-way calling, call waiting) built into the telephone
network instead of implemented in the phones. This makes the network a
crufty and expensive one to maintain, and makes it very difficult to
add new functionality. He predicts that the telcos will sink unless
they adopt new technologies that work on "stupid" networks that just
forward bits, such as the Internet. (Of course, I think Bell Canada
will still be around for a while, as people depend on the reliability
of the Bell phone system, but anyhow...)

I wonder if Skype (and Gmail Talk, once they support conferencing...
it's inevitable) will forward conference calls through a central
server for sound mixing and echo cancellation - if they did, that
would start to go against the Stupid Network idea. Won't IP multicast
be a reality Real Soon Now(tm)? Isn't a central server a limitation,
as opposed to an advantage?

P.S. It's late at night, sorry I'm rambling... :-)

Jason
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