[asterisk-biz] Skype for Asterisk.

[Trixter aka Bret McDanel]

On Fri, 2008-09-26 at 10:47 -0400, Drew Gibson wrote:
> Alex Balashov wrote:
> > It may just be my profound ignorance of the merits of Skype, but I am 
> > not sure what the benefit here is or why it is desirable or beneficial.
> >   
> 
> Although there may be technical benefits, I believe the greater benefit 
> is more on the marketing side.
> 

skype uses GIPS (global ip sound) for echo cancelation and all.  That is
a good system, but its not free.  Googletalk also uses it in their
client.  

The biggest merits is being able to call other skype users or have them
call you.  Many people want 1 service only and to have to use many
different methods of contact frustrates them, they are also more likely
to call if its free - something that skypeout isnt.  


Skype however seems to have an archilles heel for corporate uptake,
which this seems to be at least in part to try to fix.  Lets look at the
ebay example that they have pushed at least once.  Sellers on ebay can
list skype contact info and be called by buyers.  Ok sounds good but if
you are a corporate ebay seller more than one person may answer the
phone.  This makes skype almost unusable in that situation.  

Now if you know the right people to talk to you can route calls to skype
via sip+g729 to at least call their users, but they really try to hide
this and dont advertise it.  

Skype also is rumored to be "secure" however the german police have
raided people for publishing info on the trojan that the german
government has, developed and uses to monitor skype calls (on the client
machine not on the "skype network").  The german police dont like it
when people reveal their secrets.  Bundestrojan is the name.

I dislike the way skype turns your box into a "supernode" and consumes
your bandwidth all for the benefit of the ebay corporations, yes you can
trick the skype client into not doing that, if you have sufficient
control on the network to filter stuff, but its not something I would
like, why should I as a paying customer have my network abused so the
company can make more money?


-- 
Trixter http://www.0xdecafbad.com     Bret McDanel
Belfast +44 28 9099 6461        US +1 516 687 5200
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