[asterisk-users] Connecting Skype to Asterisk

[A J Stiles]

On Friday 12 October 2012, Philip Bennefall wrote:
> Hi all,
> 
> I have an Asterisk PBX under development, that I would like to link to a
> Skype account if possible. The idea is that people would call a particular
> Skype username, and be redirected to my SIP and through that to Asterisk.
> Is this doable? I have looked around and saw the Skype for Asterisk
> driver, but of course that has been discontinued. Are there any other
> options? I would prefer not to have to go through the regular PSTN
> telephone network but directly from Skype to Asterisk via SIP. If you have
> any tips on how to configure my sip.conf to get this working, this would
> also be highly appreciated.

Unfortunately, Skype is toxic, proprietary software, and was deliberately 
designed to be both incompatible with everything else, and hard to discover 
how to interface to.  They give away binaries for free, on many platforms; but 
the Source Code, and the details of the protocols used, are jealously guarded.

This is not, of course, the right way to do telephony.  We have got used to 
expecting to be able to call any subscriber on any network  (once upon a time, 
in the days of clicky-clicky dinosaur exchanges, there even used to be laws 
about that sort of thing),  and it comes as a surprise to find a network so 
tightly-locked down that they don't want to let calls in or out.  But that's 
the way the world is going now, unfortunately:  from published standards 
enforced by governments so as to create an open market where players compete 
on merit, to proprietary standards enforced by corporations using dirty tricks 
where one eventually dominates and the others fall by the wayside.

If you are any good with low-level stuff, you might want to check out the 
ongoing efforts to reverse-engineer Skype.  But a better solution might well be 
to begin informing your customers of just why Skype is so terrible.  I mean, 
you don't even get the Source Code with it -- would you eat a cake that didn't 
have the ingredients list on the box?

-- 
AJS

Answers come *after* questions.