What is Digg?93 Comments
- borninda818, on 10/12/2007, -1/+106lol, if bandwidth is an issue, they should be banning youtube.
- Alphabet, on 10/12/2007, -5/+62exactly, the reason why they're banning skype is because universities make a ***** of money from telephone lines. Of course, most people have cell phones, so they're already losing ***** of money with their old telephone networks.
- Lane, on 10/12/2007, -4/+56skype is quite possibly the greatest thing ever. id raise hell if it was banned
- Atsumi, on 10/12/2007, -3/+26I think they use "Bandwidth" as code for "Students not using our phone lines, and losing us money."
But... maybe that's just me. - SystmBetatester, on 10/12/2007, -3/+25load of crap. once again its an idiot trying to solve a problem that doesn't exist.
- sparkmonkeyz, on 10/12/2007, -3/+22I am surprised they haven't heard about WoW yet if bandwidth is an issue.
- sahaskatta, on 10/12/2007, -3/+18@imcompa
please explain how facebook, which is just text and a few pics, would consume the same amounts of bandwidth as skype or youtube? (unless your browsing it continuously for several hours)
also i think it would be better if colleges to limit the bandwidth for the skype protocol for each user rather than blocking it completely. - irieKEN, on 10/12/2007, -4/+17WTF is lakawak talking about? Downloading porn, stupid music on myspace, youtube, and playing Counter-Strike all use magnitudes more bandwidth than Skype.
I call BS, and offer that any universities banning/blocking Skype are doing so for political reasons. - teknotant, on 10/12/2007, -1/+12I am quite confident that Myspace mixed with youtube sucks most of the bandwidth up, not skype. The smart move, like other universities have done, is turn off supernode in skype.
I think it is time to lay some more fiber if skype is crippling your network.
- wildgift, on 10/12/2007, -3/+14I bet the telephone companies are pushing this policy, behind the scenes. The universities should not only allow Skype -- they should be working together on large scale Asterisk deployments.
- irieKEN, on 10/12/2007, -3/+13That's what we need. The problem is that most people won't do much more than send off a couple angry e-mails and blog posts.
- inactive, on 10/12/2007, -2/+11Security?
Skype is encrypted, and even the NSA is pissed that Skype calls cannot be tapped. - icepick314, on 10/12/2007, -2/+11yeah...skype actually is better deal than Vonage...
all US calls are free till end of year...and if it isn't, US calls are about $.02 a min...if you make more than 16 hours of call a month, then it's better to go with Vonage... - hitkaiser, on 10/12/2007, -0/+5My uni... Loughborough University (UK) has "banned the use of skype" because due to the large bandwidth the uni has, it acts as a supernode...
Hence drawing a lot of bandwidth even when not in use (which is why they don't ban VOIP in msn messenger).
If there was an option to turn this off, they would allow it... be that as it may, skype still works if you open it :P - stealthboy, on 10/12/2007, -4/+9I'm sure these universities aren't getting pressured by the telcos...
- oneeyedelf1, on 10/12/2007, -1/+5You can ban all traffic thats not something. IE ban all traffic thats not http.
- mikeyj10, on 10/12/2007, -0/+4The funny thing is that the article says at the end that the ban does not extend to the networks in the student dorms. Where do people really beelieve that most of the skype use is going to occur ayway?
- joshjoneswas, on 10/12/2007, -1/+5This crap is bogus. All universities that I've been on do that. As soon as something gets popular they ban it.
Now, correct me if I am wrong here, but is that not counter-intuitive?
I guarantee, right now, that if getting online and donating money to a certain charity suddenly became popular and some university had to sport huge bandwith costs for it, they would still ban the damn thing. - Powermac, on 10/12/2007, -3/+7I go to San Jose State. Their network is a ***** joke, pure and simple. The school is a big joke too, but that's not what this is about.
They contracted to Comcast to build out their WiFi network - which has a throughput of about 30KB/sec at the fastest and it kicks you of, automagically, every 15 minutes (it's a FEATURE!)
I use my Treo connected to my laptop to access the internet while on campus. The administration is incompetent, but IT is even worse.
++ Ban WoW and YouTube, if you care about bandwith.
I got it... BAN GOOGLE! That must suck up bandwidth. - sets13, on 10/12/2007, -2/+5Maybe you missed it but state schools as you so aptly pointed out are owned by the government which makes a stupid amount of money off of phone companies (cell phone and land line). So in the interest of the state making more money it is politically in their interests to cut off skype.
- inactive, on 10/12/2007, -0/+3no they can easily ban skype using proxies.
- inactive, on 10/12/2007, -2/+5what the ***** has an isp got to do with anything? wow is a game, and chews bandwidth using it's torrent patch downloader, although i'm sure the admins have delt with torrents ages ago.
- inactive, on 10/12/2007, -4/+7you can reread this as "universities preventing students phoning home for free"
money grab, pure and simple. skype doesn't use ***** all bandwidth compared to a ton of other things which ARE allowed.
and how is security a concern? what are the scared they will prank people using skype? like they can't do that now with a pay phone? - laferle, on 10/12/2007, -1/+4I'm a student working in the IT department at Notre Dame. I think ND is a good example of how to appropriately address these trends. This fall, the school yanked all the landline phones and revamped the entire wired and wireless ethernet infrastructure in the dorms (where 80% of the students live). Most students use cell phones or VoIP products for voice communication anyway, so why try and shove POTS down their throats? Instead, being proactive and facilitating the expansion of trends like this rather than trying to counter them is the way to go.
- kingygk, on 10/12/2007, -2/+5They must be afraid that their antiquated student phone system will loose even more money if students use skype to call home. When I was in college everyone had cell phones. Students were using the cell phones because it was too expensive to use the phone in their dorm or student apartment
My university actually had a cell phone tower installed on the roof of the library to try and recoup some of the losses because of the students non use of the uinversity phones. Even I got a prepaid cell phone because my student apartment phone was too expensive to use. I read an article in 2003 about cell phone use by students costing universities money and URI was loosing 150k a year because students had cell phones. - inactive, on 10/12/2007, -4/+7Well they're not losing money though, are they.
They just aren't making it like they did before. - PopcornDave, on 10/12/2007, -0/+3Nice to hear it hasn't changed in the last 20 years. :(
- hangtown, on 10/12/2007, -1/+4Hey, all you idiots claiming conspiracies, did you bother noticing that they still allow stuff like gizmo and other voip apps? It's just the skype method of accessing the network they don't like, and they are within their rights to not want the university network used as a supernode by skype.
I really truly believe no one reads anything but the title around here. - norris, on 10/12/2007, -0/+3damn skype is always fillin up them there pipes and thats why them smart folks in the sen-at is votin against that there net nutrality leg-i-slat-ion. we must prevent our pipes from being filled up.
- koick, on 10/12/2007, -0/+3That's why it's prohibited at UCSB:
http://www.oit.ucsb.edu/connect/skype.asp - inactive, on 10/12/2007, -1/+4Skype uses about 14KB/sec which can run without ANY problem on a university network. Most universities have multiple 100mbit links. Its not even putting a dent into their bandwidth.
- oneeyedelf1, on 10/12/2007, -0/+3Download bandwidth its cheap, they only wanna stop upload bandwidth. Also a 500MB/wk quota is obscene same with 4GB/wk. By the same token take your $20 and spend it on an account you can ssh tunnel skype through.
Although I do agree with you on security, why not kill aim over security concerns, why not kill XYZ over security concerns. Hell my school killed IRC, and I complain about it daily to them. - dasunst3r, on 10/12/2007, -4/+7Security? The last time I checked, Skype encrypts its packets. Bandwidth consumption? Ban MySpace and/or YouTube.
Or to prevent us from looking like hypocrites (remember: US bases its ideals on freedom), why not impose some sort of bandwidth quota, which can be raised depending on how much you pay? (e.g. UT Austin provides its users with a 500 MB/wk quota for ABSOLUTELY ANYTHING you want, and ResNet is $20/mo for 4 GB/wk tacked onto that tiny quota) - mtgarden, on 10/12/2007, -1/+3Actually, I am one of those at a university looking to ban skype. On principle, I do not have a problem with skype. The issue we have is multifacted, but the two primary concerns are bandwidth and security.
Maybe we are just paranoid, but we want to be on the safe side (for security sake). And as bandwidth is expensive, we filter out file sharing, music sharing and video sharing sites. We would be happy to allow VoIP if we could find a reliable low-bandwidth manner (that works through the proxy). We have many international students that we would love to be able to assist in this manner. As for now, Skype struggles with the proxy.
This isn't about hurting students or draconian measures (some of those deciding against skype actually use it at home). We just do not see this as appropriate for a corporate network.
There are legitimate reasons for prohibiting it. - slapshot24, on 10/12/2007, -5/+7Security as in "we don't like students running applications that leave ports open 24/7 since somebody will inevitably find a way in through some sort of trojan/rookit/crack/etc".
Anything that leaves ports open on student machines has a vulnerability built-in. Skype might not have had a security problem yet, but it's inevitable.
University networks are top targets for DDOS attacks just by the sheer number of un-managed machines on one LAN. - quanticle, on 10/12/2007, -0/+2@timmarhy
I don't know about other universities, but mine had blocked bittorrent at the port level. Also they cut off your internet if they found you torrenting. After World of Warcraft players and Linux users raised holy hell, they did relax the ban somewhat, though you can still get into trouble for not throttling your uploads. - krached, on 10/12/2007, -1/+3It has been my general observation that university IT staffs are not that up on things. I go to a university that was seriously effected by Katrina and Rita, and so disaster recovery is now on everyones mind. The backup email solution? To register another domain, give everyone a different password, ask them to write it down in a notebook they will use when evacuating. When I use the computer's in the lab, because there is no way to access the network drives where you get a whopping 25M of space, only about 2/3 of them work. On any given day, 10% of students cannot connect to the wireless network. I don't see what the IT staff in our building do besides smoke. I should have just gotten a Uni job instead of going back to school.
- inactive, on 10/12/2007, -2/+4I don't think anyone gets it. It's impossible to ban software through detecting its socked and packet information. You can change the sockets. You can change the packet information, and you can cycle it constantly if you wanted to, in any method you desired.
What is going to happen, is soon applications will have advanced networking options that make it impossible to ban, ever...
It's like trying to make a program that cannot be hacked. It cannot happen.
It's only going to force applications to become unbannable by banning them in the first place. So I cannot complain. I can only laugh at the people that think banning certain ports on their router or have it detect huestics of packet information is going to keep working. - mtgarden, on 10/12/2007, -0/+2Read the article. The dormitories are third-party networks and are not banned!!!! Only the university network proper is banned.
- Septimus, on 10/12/2007, -1/+3Just goes to show San Jose Uni knows ***** all about networks.
Just use packet shaping to remove the Super Noding as we do.
As to the above comment, all our students (90,000+) all have direct connection with static IP running through massive Cisco firewalls. - OrangeTide, on 10/12/2007, -0/+2the government subsidized the phone company (you pay a phone tax to the FCC, but the government props up the phone company whenever they have any "losses", real or imagined). and frankly the US government isn't organized enough to pull off cross-departmental scams like that.
- PopcornDave, on 10/12/2007, -0/+2@zybch
Actually in today's thinking, not making the money you did *is* losing money. Isn't that what the RIAA thinks? - inactive, on 10/12/2007, -1/+3so you think not for profit means they can't be money hungry controlling *****?
jesus wake up to yourselfs - avatarpalin, on 10/12/2007, -0/+2I love it when announcements are made "Due to security reasons we have decided to ban [INSERT SOFTWARE HERE]"
Yet ask them.. So are you making Firefox standard? Hell even banning Windows and opting for Linux or OS X? Nooo
Let's face it, security is just a convenient shield that can be used to justify any decision.. - 0x0000ff, on 10/12/2007, -1/+3To paraphrase an idiot directly above me in this thread:
When you repeat your comment multiple times across a single article in Digg, you look dumb. - khyberkitsune, on 10/12/2007, -5/+6Apparently most Universities need to fire their entire IT department and hire some teenage guys to run things, because the old people in the building just aren't competent enough to use some common sense.
Skype keeps friends and family in touch, and is a perfect program for a college student far away from home. Why the universities would block this program, I don't know. Maybe it's time we threw all the old people out of the IT Admin offices and restocked them with younger people that are able to appreciate the things a college student needs to do. - imightbewrong, on 10/12/2007, -1/+2idk about everyone else but at my house Vonage just doesn't work right
- hsbsitez, on 10/12/2007, -0/+1oh well. Not going to affect me much, since I have not really used skype on the campus. Mainly since I live in the city. It may be of importance to those are who are out of state students.
Still, weird to see name of SJSU on digg. - LordFate, on 10/12/2007, -1/+2When they said "excessive bandwidth consumption" I started getting really interested in this article. I work in a state uni networking department and have seen people use crazy amounts of bandwidth and slow down the rest of the network for everyone else. But to my amusement they said in the article "bandwidth consumption can increase by as much as an entire gigabyte per month for a single Skype client when it acts as a supernode." This got me actually laughing out loud. I've seen people use 10 gigs in a day and we never gave them any problems. 1 gig a month is a pitiful amount of data transfer to be worried about.
If your network really can't handle that much transfer the first solution is to just firewall off your users. This virtually cripples a lot of the p2p applications and makes it impossible for people to become a supernode. Secondly, there are network based solutions for traffic shaping so that you could limit how much data transfer a set of applications use (basically it limits speed on a per port basis, and also on a user basis so no user or application can use a disproportionate amount of transfer).
Lastly, Skype is hardly a security concern. Certainly, open ports could be a concern, but Windows keeps ports open itself. This isn't an insult to Windows, heck I'm using a Windows box right now, but (whether it be because it is a bigger target, or if it is actually less secure) Windows is a larger security concern then Skype. If a security vulnerability is released for Windows, 90% of your network is at risk, if a Skype vulnerability is released I doubt that even 10% of your users will have it running and be at risk. - behemothaur, on 10/12/2007, -1/+2I am really concerned about the lack of networking knowledge demonstrated in a few of the above posts. Cowboys who make comments directly out of the arse are a far bigger concern to modern networks than any "grid" apps.
And before we start a flame war please wiki QoS. -
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