With IP6 supernodes won't be needed for A/V traffic. Supernodes are only needed for NAT hacks.
Skype succeeded because it worked in many different network environments. As contrasted with h323 and sip. Just to remind.
Skype replaces P2P supernodes with Linux boxes hosted by Microsoft
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Re: Skype replaces P2P supernodes with Linux boxes hosted by Microsoft
#32With IP6 supernodes won't be needed for A/V traffic. Supernodes are only needed for NAT hacks. Skype succeeded because it worked in many different network environments. As contrasted with h323 and sip. Just to remind.
Think again; firewalling and NAT are coming to IPv6 whether they're needed or not.
Re: Skype replaces P2P supernodes with Linux boxes hosted by Microsoft
#33Certainly helps solve the intercept problem for the American national security agencies. (Was that still a problem? My info is probably out of date, but skype being p2p was a pain in the ass for spying on customers a short while ago)
Skype offers lawful interception access to anyone interested. The encryption is literally just obfuscation to deny intermediate peers access.
Re: Skype replaces P2P supernodes with Linux boxes hosted by Microsoft
#34Let me just make this very clear: you don't go from zero operating cost to multiple millions of hardware and colo space to do the very same thing, in a move so transparent that it needs security researchers to dig into your program to find out it has happened at all. I guess Skype (by extension, Microsoft) is growing interested in what people are speaking about. To get hold of that data you need to route it through y…
Or instead of engaging in conspiracy theores with zero proof we should look at whats going on here rationally. Skype is really unacceptable in any corporate environment. I don't want a random PC on my network to be a superpeer and suddenly use my 50mbps connection routing calls to the world. Run skype for a couple of mins, fire up tcpview, and watch calls come in and out. Not only is this a waste of my resources it a…
He phrased it like a conspiracy theorist, but it's a little naive to think that intercept capability wasn't a factor in this decision. As far as I know skype was the biggest player in communications that wasn't being completely monitored.
Re: Skype replaces P2P supernodes with Linux boxes hosted by Microsoft
#35Certainly helps solve the intercept problem for the American national security agencies. (Was that still a problem? My info is probably out of date, but skype being p2p was a pain in the ass for spying on customers a short while ago)
Skype offers lawful interception access to anyone interested. The encryption is literally just obfuscation to deny intermediate peers access.
But not large scale trawling of all call data or the ability to mirror all traffic to another location as far as I know.
Re: Skype replaces P2P supernodes with Linux boxes hosted by Microsoft
#36Let me just make this very clear: you don't go from zero operating cost to multiple millions of hardware and colo space to do the very same thing, in a move so transparent that it needs security researchers to dig into your program to find out it has happened at all. I guess Skype (by extension, Microsoft) is growing interested in what people are speaking about. To get hold of that data you need to route it through y…
Others have argued that the real value of this is the improved user experience (and control over the user experience). That's almost certainly true. But more importantly, mining data from Skype would be of negative value to MS.
Trying to gather any information that's utterly generic and innocuous would cause a massive PR scandal that would probably destroy Skype's credibility for ever, and possibly taint many other of Microsoft's online services as well. What data worth from wiretapping could possibly be worth $8+ billion?
The only way it could possibly make sense is if they were certain of never getting caught. And that's a tall order in these days. All it takes is one lawsuit against MS where the legal discovery process can touch documents and communications pertaining to Skype.
Re: Skype replaces P2P supernodes with Linux boxes hosted by Microsoft
#37Something not mentioned by Ars is that the difference in cost between datacenter bandwidth and broadband has changed significantly in the last 10 years. Datacenter resources are now so cheap that P2P has little advantage. (I think the rise of cyberlockers are another manifestation of this trend.)
that's pretty interesting. do you have a link or something with some of the cost analysis?
Re: Skype replaces P2P supernodes with Linux boxes hosted by Microsoft
#38Earlier quoted context omitted.
Skype offers lawful interception access to anyone interested. The encryption is literally just obfuscation to deny intermediate peers access.
But not large scale trawling of all call data or the ability to mirror all traffic to another location as far as I know.
Of course not; thats not "lawful interception" in the countries that Skype would market such services to. They don't have access to that large-scale data anyway, hence my comment on getting access to it by routing it through your own infrastructure.
Re: Skype replaces P2P supernodes with Linux boxes hosted by Microsoft
#39Let me just make this very clear: you don't go from zero operating cost to multiple millions of hardware and colo space to do the very same thing, in a move so transparent that it needs security researchers to dig into your program to find out it has happened at all. I guess Skype (by extension, Microsoft) is growing interested in what people are speaking about. To get hold of that data you need to route it through y…
Others have argued that the real value of this is the improved user experience (and control over the user experience). That's almost certainly true. But more importantly, mining data from Skype would be of negative value to MS. Trying to gather any information that's utterly generic and innocuous would cause a massive PR scandal that would probably destroy Skype's credibility for ever, and possibly taint many other o…
Would this fall under wiretapping? Other IM services have blanket statements on monitoring all and any communication in their TOS, this just takes it to voice and video.
I guess what I was thinking of was something akin to Google AdWords, not the "they want to control the world" conspiracy theory edge.
Re: Skype replaces P2P supernodes with Linux boxes hosted by Microsoft
#40Something not mentioned by Ars is that the difference in cost between datacenter bandwidth and broadband has changed significantly in the last 10 years. Datacenter resources are now so cheap that P2P has little advantage. (I think the rise of cyberlockers are another manifestation of this trend.)
that's pretty interesting. do you have a link or something with some of the cost analysis?
Here's bandwidth pricing: http://drpeering.net/white-papers/Internet-Transit-Pricing-H... Let's say 100x drop in 10 years. (But broadband upstream certainly hasn't gotten 100x faster!)
Determining the cost break-even point between P2P and client-server is more complex and I haven't seen any public analyses of it.