Multiplatform 3-way Skype

[Scotti]

I just wanted to make mention how cool this is. I'm in a conference call with my Dad and brother. My Dad is running WinXP, my brother is running MacOSX, and I'm in Debian GNU/Linux, of course. Sweet.

[AgenT]

Do note that 1) Skype is non-freedom software and 2) Skype forces connections from unknown entities to your computer without you being allowed to disable this or even know about it.

Check it out yourself. Get in contact with someone on Skype. You should have only 1 incomming entity (your friend). Wait about 2 minutes and you will notice that you have 3-5 entities connected to your computer! Most of those will be other Skype users, but once in awhile you will have one of the major teleco's connected. Seeing how Skype is non-freedom software and therefore closed source and therefore have no way of finding out what it is doing with these connections, I would not trust it at all. Especially since you are not allowed to disable it and Skype tries its best to keep this little fact secret from you. Even if Skype did say something about it, you may as well trust Microsoft and its many spying "features".

There are different ways of checking this for yourself. You can use netstat, lsof or wireshark depending on what you want to see exactly. lsof -i should do the trick once you are connected to Skype.

Note: I found this out first hand on someones computer by accident a month or so ago. I would never install or even trust such a program and install on my own computer. Therefore, things may have changed by now but I doubt it.

My guess would be that this secret communication is done encrypted via some secret method developed by Skype so that you cannot easily see what Skype is doing via wireshark and other such programs.

[Grifter]

oh bullshit, the black helicopters are not circling overhead, it's how skype works, if you're ipmasqueraded you can only call to a server, but if your computer has a 'sharp' ip then you become a node, because skype isn't centralized, it works by finding peers which is aggregated by these nodes

this is how skype works and it's not a secret - knowing how skype works doesn't make you some sort of Freedom Guerilla, mister "Agent", clearly you have some romanticized views, and another thing; people are free to run whichever software they want regardless of what you think

[hcgtv]

Skype is P2P based: http://skype.com/products/explained.html

[synux]

Do note that 1) Skype is non-freedom software

I don't think it's a crime to us enon-free software to call his Dad or brother

[craigevil]

You couldn't pay me enough to install Skype on my system.

The facts: Please read carefully:
English: http://www.pagetable.com/?p=27
German: http://www.heise.de/security/news/meldung/85050

Did you know this? Do you want your Computer to spy you?
And Skype admit it in their terms of use:
English: http://www.skype.com/company/legal/priv ... neral.html
German: http://www.skype.com/intl/de/company/le ... neral.html


More (independent) facts here: http://www.secdev.org/conf/skype_BHEU06.handout.pdf

in brief:
good about skype:
- Skype was made by clever people
- Good use of cryptography

bad about skype:
- hard to enforce a security policy with Skype
- Jams traffic, can’t be distinguished from data exfiltration
- Incompatible with traffic monitoring, IDS
- Impossible to protect from attacks (which would be obfuscated)
- Total blackbox. Lack of transparency.
- No way to know if there is/will be a backdoor
- fully trusts anyone who speaks Skype


Use Ekiga, Wengophone or Freeworlddialup if you have to have voice chat. Hopefully Gaim will have voice and video soon.