Just two weeks after we suggested that enterprises should consider Skype as one alternative for some but not all business calls, Skype suffered an outage that affected millions of its global customers. The outage occurred mid-week last week and lasted some 12 to 24 hours and prevented users from logging into Skype for both Skype-to-Skype calls and blocked Skype’s messaging capability.
Last September I talked about how businesses use Skype for free teleconferencing in "Another IM-VoIP Advantage." Limitations in Skype conferencing include a maximum of five total users, only one of which can be a SkypeOut user (someone you reach through a traditional telephone number). Those who typically conference five or fewer folks can take advantage of the option, but many people would like to have nine or ninety on their calls. Right now, they're out of luck, but not for long.
At last week's Consumer Electronics Show in Las Vegas, Skype and Netgear announced they are working on a family of products, including the world's first Skype wireless mobile telephone and a router equipped to optimize Skype.
In a recent newsletter we described what we referred to as the port 80 black hole. There are a growing number of applications, including peer-to-peer software such as Skype and AOL Instant Messenger (AIM), that use port 80 but most IT organizations don’t have the ability to distinguish between the applications that use port 80. As a result, IT organizations are vulnerable to security breaches, cannot comply with government and industry regulations, are vulnerable to being charged with breaking copyright
Skype is making news again with a laundry list of partnerships designed to make voice calls over the Internet easier. One product also expands Skype's services to include on online photo sharing service. With over 225 million downloaded copies of Skype's software, there may be a ready-made market for some cost-effective IP-based telephones.
Almost every week, we write about how to make the most effective use of your WAN and the topics often center on how to keep unauthorized traffic off your network. For instance, we recently wrote about whether it’s a good idea and/or possible to block traffic in certain ports, especially with the ability of applications like Skype to find a way though most firewalls and application performance appliances.
Is the free VoIP service provided by Skype a security risk? We called in Ed Mier and his team to thoroughly evaluate the security aspects of Skype. What they found was both surprising and strangely reassuring.
Test: Assessing Skype's network impact
http://www.networkworld.com/reviews/2005/121205-skype-test.html?net&story=121205-skype-test
We just tested a new Skype-related product from Linksys, the Cordless Internet Telephony Kit (otherwise known as the CIT200), and we're very impressed.
Last week, Skype announced that it had discovered a flaw in its free VoIP software that could potentially allow hackers to wreak havoc with a Skype user's computer. For the more details (including a link to the software patch), please click see the Network World story "Skype patches critical flaws".
You can talk up the benefits of Internet telephony all you want, but you'll never hear your local phone company say it's patching a critical flaw that could allow an attacker to take over your phone - and the rest of your computer as well.
Skype patches critical flaws
http://www.networkworld.com/net.worker/news/2005/102505-skype-patch.html?net&story=102505-skype-patch