Skype Review

" Security Security Security.

What is up with security and P2P will this program open up exploits or features that allow auto installs of spyware or Adware at a later time?

I'm aware that the P2P technology that skype uses might leave holes in ones security.

People need to look into that.
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That was posted earlier (2-26-04) and everyone just blew right by it with all the ooooh's and aaaaaah's of "free" and "sound quality" yet fail to see how many other p2p and file sharing products have come to be pipelines for some of the worst bugs of all time (remember email v1). Just look at any virus encyclopedia to see how many of them *now* exploit a previously innocent program for seriously destructive purposes.

Perhaps I'll sit back and wait until all the patches are in place before I jump on this bandwagon. I just spent lots of $$ on a firewall and spysweeping system and have become so paranoid that my inner voice is screaming "back orafice - here we go again"....

Anyone is welcome to convince me otherwise.

~cyborg2029~

Was very impressed on my first usage of Skype to India.

Very easy to set up and use.

I can't praise Skype enough, for someone that travels the world it is perfect for me and I'll save a small fortune calling the kids at home when away now. No more inflated hotel phone calls, no more large mobile bills and no more searchng for calling cards at the airport when I arrive.

I have also installed it on my pocket pc (an Ipaq h6365 with built in phone) and had a fairly decent call to Singapore from the UK using a wireless link so if I am near a wireless hotspot I can use my Ipaq anywhere in the world, now thats excellent.

Phoned my mate in Australia yesterday and was amazed by the clarity.

Skype is my first experience of this kind of technology. I'm very impressed and can see me personally saving one hell of a lot of money. I'd like to see an internet phone that plugs into your router and makes use of skype. This would be perfect for people that just don't feel comfortable sitting there with a headset on or don't want to leave their computer on. If it isn't there already then expect somebody to be working on it as we speak!

Hi,

For the record, I use Skype to other Skype users and also Skypeout to normal phones all over the world. I live in the middle east and have a poor 28.8 k dialup connection. The voice quality even under these conditions is excellent. My only criticism that I have is that for some reason it is very difficult to get Skype to accept prepayment for Skypeout. There always seems to be some "security concern" regarding my payments. This is never the case with "Iconnecthere (delta3)" but I prefer the quality and cost of the Skype service.

Don

Justin...
Be very careful when you say "The service is peer to peer with no central server routing and accounting for all Skype conversations."
I used a program called Commview to analyze all outgoing packets, I found that all conversation packets were routing through an IP address belonging to a Telco in China. While also periodically sending statistical packets to a University in the U.S.
If we really want good encrypted voip software, it needs to be
open source, with true 'peer to peer' connections, having a server only to establish the call.