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San Jose State University, like many other institutions, is considering banning Skype on the grounds that:
1. Skype's End-User License Agreement (EULA) requires the user to grant use of university network bandwidth by Skype users otherwise unaffiliated with the university, and end users are not authorized to enter into this type of agreement on behalf of the university (i.e., the owner of the resource)..
2. The operation of Skype's relay function is not in compliance with university policy because:
a. It provides service to third-party people other than those conducting university business.
b. It exceeds incidental personal use.
3. Skype persistently alters host firewall settings and increases the probability the computer will be compromised. The bandwidth issue is not trivial:
[A]ccording to the Office of Information Technology, the chief problem comes when a Skype client acts as a "supernode" and makes itself available to relay calls made by other users. Having numerous supernodes on a school network increases bandwidth consumption and has a detrimental impact on connectivity, according to the memo. Anecdotal reports from individual Skype users reveal that bandwidth consumption can increase by as much as an entire gigabyte per month for a single Skype client when it acts as a supernode. Infectious Greed notes that the SJSU list of concerns "describes pretty much every peer-to-peer app extant, so we may be about to see some major sea-changes."
IG also recounts his experience as a supernode
posted by James DeLong @ 7:20 AM | Internet: P2P, Search Engines...
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