Skype mai 17, 2006
Posted by Postmaster in Home of the Future, Office of the Future.trackback
Skype is a peer-to-peer Voice-over-IP (VoIP) network, allowing its users to call other Skype users for free. Skype also provides paying services allowing users to call traditional telephone numbers (SkypeOut, free in North America) and receive calls from traditional phones (SkypeIn). Skype develops additional services such as video calling and Skypecast (released on May 3, 2006), live and moderated conversations allowing groups of up to 100 people to talk to one another with a virtual microphone being passed around. Skype was bought by eBay in October 2005.
Skype is very popular: the software has been downloaded some 250 million times and it was reported that six million concurrent Skype users were on line as of March 27, 2006. Skype hit 100 million registered Skype Names on April 27, 2006.
There is however criticism against Skype and some large organisations banned it from their networks:
- Skype is a proprietary software program using undocumented protocols ("blackbox"), as opposed to VoIP applications that use standard and open VoIP protocols.
- Skype is a peer-to-peer network over client machines, with clients on fast connections becoming major exchange points; according to Computerworld, “in supernode mode, Skype is reputedly able to saturate 100 Mbit/second connections.”
- It bypasses firewalls and there is no control over information flows; although it has never happened, it could potentially be used to hack corporate networks.
Other large corporations use it: USRobotics’ customers can call Customer Support via Skype and Info-Tech reports that 17 million Skypers worldwide use it for business.
Skype has a headstart on the VoIP market, but strong competition is awaiting: Google Talk, Yahoo! Messenger, Microsoft Live Messenger and AOL Instant Messenger all offer (or will offer) similar telephony functions.
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