Comments | carik: VOIP!

carik

VOIP!

Oct 05, 2006 11:07

Since I almost never post about the good (or at least interesting) parts of my job....

I just got to spend the morning playing with Skype. For those of you who don't know, it's a voice over IP (VOIP) application that basically lets you make phone calls over the internet. If you're calling someone else who has skype, it's free, if you're calling ( Read more... )

Comments 6

image_girl October 5 2006, 15:46:23 UTC

VOIP
sigh.. i so gotta get with whats going on in my work dept. I know nothing about voip other than we have dozens of customers and tickets everywhere. Our customers are the resellers though. Voip is big and growing.

We had skype for a while. worked good. I think we did a test a year or so ago. I called a friend in CA. that was cool. We got it nuked off our machines a while ago in one of the desktop upgrades, otherwise i'd give you a ring :D

carik October 5 2006, 17:18:47 UTC

Yeah... voip is a bit weird. Turns out that Skype (occasionally) uses your computer as a supernode, and borrows your processor to route other people's calls, which is causing some debate over whether it's worthwhile. Far as I'm concerned, most people have way too much processing power anyway, and the service can probably be shut off when you really need everything your CPU can give you.

gapunzel October 5 2006, 19:46:42 UTC

i didn't know that, but i'm assuming it only happens when i have the program running, which isn't often now i'm back in the states. i'm on it too, for what that's worth. =)

carik October 5 2006, 19:49:14 UTC

I thought I remembered that you had been planning to sign up, but I wasn't sure. 8-)

I think they only use your computer when it's running, yes... I'm not absolutely positive, but it seems likely.

coffeebeanben October 6 2006, 01:15:48 UTC

My brother uses Skype. Loves it. Even had it running on a Pentium II 350MHz Windows 2000 machine and got clear calls and full features.

I'll have to look up the supernode bit. I'm skeptical about that; sounds too much like an urband legend. Doesn't even make much sense really.

And yeah, isn't OIT the devil. Vilify! Vilify!

carik October 6 2006, 12:58:34 UTC

*shrug* Well, OIT has to make back their money somehow, I suppose. My assumption has always been that the University doesn't actually fund OIT (or at least doesn't fully fund it), which is why they charge for things like providing a network jack. Doesn't make much sense, otherwise.

As to the supernode thing, here are a few links:

http://www.skypejournal.com/blog/archives/2005/12/p2p_experts_map_skypenets_supernodes.php

http://www.theregister.co.uk/2003/10/08/how_does_skype_get_through/

http://forum.skype.com/index.php?showtopic=13780

Looks like it's real, but probably not worth worrying about.