Skype.com

Tyrain

<div class="IPBDescription">"The" new messenging system...</div> <a href='http://skype.com' target='_blank'>http://skype.com</a>

This messenger uses per2per technic for highquality voicecommunication. It works similiar to ICQ/AMI/whatnot. But you can voicechat with who ever you have in your list and the quality is amazing!

Aaron

Although it looks tempting, I am very distrust.ful of "peer to peer" VoIP. Would <i>you</i> want your calls routed by anybody who could just listen in? No thanks. They should work on a decent "point to point" VoIP with none of the "peer to peer" nonsense involved (the point of peer to peer is 1) load distribution and 2) dynamic discovery - neither of which are applicable to voice, unless you just want to talk to random people you don't know).

Tyrain

<!--QuoteBegin--Aaron+Sep 13 2003, 06:57 PM--></span><table border='0' align='center' width='95%' cellpadding='3' cellspacing='1'><tr><td><b>QUOTE</b> (Aaron @ Sep 13 2003, 06:57 PM)</td></tr><tr><td id='QUOTE'><!--QuoteEBegin--> Although it looks tempting, I am very distrust.ful of "peer to peer" VoIP. Would <i>you</i> want your calls routed by anybody who could just listen in? No thanks. They should work on a decent "point to point" VoIP with none of the "peer to peer" nonsense involved (the point of peer to peer is 1) load distribution and 2) dynamic discovery - neither of which are applicable to voice, unless you just want to talk to random people you don't know). <!--QuoteEnd--> </td></tr></table><span class='postcolor'> <!--QuoteEEnd-->
Hmm I don't fully understand what you mean.

It's much like ICQ but that you can talk instead of typing.

Aaron

<!--QuoteBegin--Tyrain+Sep 13 2003, 02:02 PM--></span><table border='0' align='center' width='95%' cellpadding='3' cellspacing='1'><tr><td><b>QUOTE</b> (Tyrain @ Sep 13 2003, 02:02 PM)</td></tr><tr><td id='QUOTE'><!--QuoteEBegin--><!--QuoteBegin--Aaron+Sep 13 2003, 06:57 PM--></span><table border='0' align='center' width='95%' cellpadding='3' cellspacing='1'><tr><td><b>QUOTE</b> (Aaron @ Sep 13 2003, 06:57 PM)</td></tr><tr><td id='QUOTE'><!--QuoteEBegin--> Although it looks tempting, I am very distrust.ful of "peer to peer" VoIP.  Would <i>you</i> want your calls routed by anybody who could just listen in? No thanks.  They should work on a decent "point to point" VoIP with none of the "peer to peer" nonsense involved (the point of peer to peer is 1) load distribution and 2) dynamic discovery - neither of which are applicable to voice, unless you just want to talk to random people you don't know). <!--QuoteEnd--></td></tr></table><span class='postcolor'><!--QuoteEEnd-->
Hmm I don't fully understand what you mean.

It's much like ICQ but that you can talk instead of typing.<!--QuoteEnd--></td></tr></table><span class='postcolor'><!--QuoteEEnd-->
"peer 2 peer" implies that your "peers" help distribute load by sharing resources. For file sharing that means for disk. For voice, who knows what that means. But the docs indicate that peers will route calls for machines behind firewalls or nats. If peers are routing calls that means they have the opportunity to eavesdrop on them (yes, the docs say it's encrypted, but I wouldn't take that for granted).

That said, if you don't really care about secure communications, this could very well be a very cool thing (I'm just distrust.ful of sharman networks aka kazaa, due to their history of spyware/adware).

There is also an open source <a href='http://www.openh323.org/code.html#windows' target='_blank'>OpenPhone client</a> which is point to point, but I haven't had the chance to try it out (and it looks of rough quality).

Tyrain

Edit: Uh see that. Point... but I don't worry. If anybody wants to know what I talk I don't care...

NumbersNotFound

Peer to Peer is simply connecting one peer to another in it's simplest sense... The whole "routing" thing is done with decentralization and swarm downloading.

taboofires

There's a built-in voice app that works fairly decent, so your buddy list is going to be mighty empty in HL.

Marik_Steele

<span style='color:orange'>*Phased*</span> to off-topic.

NumbersNotFound

guess i was wrong:

<!--QuoteBegin--></span><table border='0' align='center' width='95%' cellpadding='3' cellspacing='1'><tr><td><b>QUOTE</b> </td></tr><tr><td id='QUOTE'><!--QuoteEBegin-->Is Skype secure?
Yes. When you call another Skype user your call is encrypted with strong encryption algorithms ensuring you privacy. In some cases your Skype communication may be routed via other users in the peer-to-peer network. Skype encryption protects you from potential eavesdropping from malicious users.

Why are Skype calls encrypted?
Skype is encrypted end-to-end because it uses the public Internet to transport your voice. Skype encryption ensures that no other party can eavesdrop on your call or read your instant messages.

What type of encryption is used? Skype uses AES (Advanced Encryption Standard), which is also used by U.S. Government organizations to protect sensitive, information. Skype uses 256-bit encryption, which has a total of 1.1 x 1077 possible keys, in order to actively encrypt the data in each Skype call or instant message.<!--QuoteEnd--></td></tr></table><span class='postcolor'><!--QuoteEEnd-->