> At IWMW 3005 last week we made use of the Skype VoIP application
Can I ask what different institutions have in terms of a policy on
Skype?
We block most P2P packets at the firewall to help lower the risks of us
receiving the dreaded letters from the film distributors. Since Skype is
based upon Kazaa technology, our routers can't tell the difference
between kazaa packets and Skype packets, so all get blocked (so I'm
told).
We have also found problems with Skype in that (quoting from the Skype
website):
"A true P2P system, in our opinion, is one where all nodes in a network
join together dynamically to participate in traffic routing-,
processing- and bandwidth intensive tasks that would otherwise be
handled by central servers."
What this seems to mean is that as we are on a nice fast JANET pipe, we
get used to route calls for users not on our network. And having
received a complaint from one of our network admins about the number of
packets destined for machines foreign to our network late at night (when
I was safely at home tucked up in bed!) when I did have Skype running
through the firewall, I suspect this is happening.
Therefore, does anyone have a policy on this, or know more about the
network implications than I do? It seems to be a great tool, but if by
allowing it means we are allowing Kazaa etc, then it's going to be a
tough decision.
Thanks,
Stuart
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Datblygydd Cymwysiadau'r We Web Applications Developer
Gwasanaethau Gwybodaeth Information Services
Prifysgol Cymru Aberystwyth University of Wales Aberystwyth
E-bost / E-mail: [log in to unmask]
Ffon / Tel: (01970) 622860
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