Re: Your opinion on Skype
From: Chandrashekhar Mullaparthi (chandrashekhar.mullaparthi_at_t-mobile.co.uk)
Date: 08/22/05
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Date: Mon, 22 Aug 2005 18:31:32 +0100 To: "Joe George" <j.george@conservation.org>
Hi,
I can understand your reluctance. I think Skype would've gained the
trust of network admins everywhere if they made it easy to block Skype
but still encrypted everything. That way, people who are very
conservative about what traffic goes out of their networks can block
Skype and the rest can knowingly allow it. At the moment, it is very
difficult to block Skype.
It is the viral nature of Skype which puts me off. It bypasses NAT
devices and even proxy servers. At the moment it cannot pass through a
proxy server which requires a password from the user but I can't see
that being a barrier for very long. A user can install a local proxy
which does not require a password which then authenticates itself to
the corporate proxy. Or they might introduce that functionality into
the Skype client software itself.
If I had to take a decision I would block Skype because I don't know
what comes and goes through Skype. But blocking it isn't very easy as
it can make itself look just like web browsing traffic.
On a Windows machine, even if you shutdown Skype it is still running in
the background acting as a "super node" relaying calls for people who
are behind very restrictive networks. That can use a lot of bandwidth
and processing power. Although they are no known viruses/backdoors for
Skype, as it increases in popularity it is only a matter of time before
some flaw is discovered.
I will happily use Skype on my PC at home and my mobile phone when
roaming but I wouldn't trust it in a corporate environment. If Skype
made a corporate version of their product where the network admin can
control who can get onto that "private" Skype network, you have a
winner there for everyone!
cheers,
Chandru
On 18 Aug 2005, at 16:14, Joe George wrote:
> I've been reading several articles including the link to one below
> regarding Skype software. We have several users in our HQ office as
> well as field offices who were recommended to use Skype to keep in
> communication. Several of us in our IT department are very
> apprehensive about it for many reasons including the fact it's not
> been through a pilot phase. Aside from the VoIP functionality, I do
> not understand why they need it, because we have an enterprise IM
> client available, which you can integrate several other IM clients
> with. A VoIP solution is not far away from being deployed throughout
> organization as well.
>
> Skype's claim of being secure does little to ease my mind. Skype is
> not on the list of our supported applications, and as a low on the
> totem pole I am within the organization; I would be remiss by not
> mentioning my apprehension to the end-user of it being on their
> computer. I just wanted to get your thoughts on it. I've installed
> Skype on my own computer and haven't seen any adverse effects, but I
> do not use it often due to lack of time. Have any of you deployed it
> successfully within your network? What is your opinion on the
> application?
>
> http://networks.silicon.com/telecoms/0,39024659,39125816,00.htm
>
>
> Thanks in advance,
>
> Joe
>
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