VoIP (was: Proxy websites)

[Dave Cramer]

There is some evidence that they do use a central server for password  
authentication, then after that it is a variation of the kazaa protocol.

Dave
On 7-Apr-06, at 12:37 AM, Jason Spiro wrote:

> 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
> --
> The Toronto Linux Users Group.      Meetings: http://tlug.ss.org
> TLUG requests: Linux topics, No HTML, wrap text below 80 columns
> How to UNSUBSCRIBE: http://tlug.ss.org/subscribe.shtml
>

--
The Toronto Linux Users Group.      Meetings: http://tlug.ss.org
TLUG requests: Linux topics, No HTML, wrap text below 80 columns
How to UNSUBSCRIBE: http://tlug.ss.org/subscribe.shtml