Category: P2P
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Video: My CNN UK Interview about Skype Supernodes
Continue Reading: Video: My CNN UK Interview about Skype SupernodesThe reaction to my last post explaining how Skype’s supernodes work has been both amazing and amusing. Largely the reaction points out to me that Skype really needs to do a better job explaining their architecture… but in their absence, others of us will do so.Anyway, one of the more fun outcomes was that I was asked to appear on a CNN UK show “Quest on Business” with host Richard Quest. Unfortunately the show was not streamed live nor was it available for viewing online later. Quite a FAIL on CNN’s part, in my opinion, because the segment certainly would have been linked to by some of us. In any event, my friend James Enck in the UK captured the segment by the super high tech method of pointing his cell phone at the TV and recording the video. 🙂
The irony, of course, is that we recorded the show entirely using Skype 😉
For those who wish to view the segment, here it is:
It was fun to do and hopefully helped some more folks out there understand a bit more about Skype. (And thanks, James, for capturing it.)
If you found this post interesting or useful, please…
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Understanding Today’s Skype Outage: Explaining Supernodes
Continue Reading: Understanding Today’s Skype Outage: Explaining SupernodesFor the first time in 3 years, Skype was down today – and as I write this is still in the process of slowly coming back online. A ton of articles were written today, mostly all pointing back to Skype’s blog post or status update, which most importantly said this (I’ve shortened it a bit):
Some of these computers are what we call ‘supernodes’ – they act a bit like phone directories for Skype. If you want to talk to someone, and your Skype app can’t find them immediately … your computer or phone will first try to find a supernode to figure out how to reach them.
Under normal circumstances, there are a large number of supernodes available. Unfortunately, today, many of them were taken offline by a problem affecting some versions of Skype. As Skype relies on being able to maintain contact with supernodes, it may appear offline for some of you.
Let’s explain this a bit more.
Explaining Supernodes
If you go back and read my primer on the technology behind Skype and P2P networks, I described supernodes as Skype clients that are on the public Internet and NOT behind a firewall or NAT device that broker…
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A Brief Primer on the Tech Behind Skype, P2PSIP and P2P Networks
Continue Reading: A Brief Primer on the Tech Behind Skype, P2PSIP and P2P NetworksWhat is an overlay network? What’s a DHT? How does a node compare to a supernode? What differentiates a “pure” peer-to-peer (P2P) system from a “hybrid” system?
UPDATE: Unfortunately, this post is no longer accurate with regard to Skype’s infrastructure. After the massive Skype outage in December 2010, it was expected that Skype was exploring ways to make their system more stable and resilient. In early 2012, Skype (at that point now owned by Microsoft) was reported to have replaced much of the P2P supernode infrastructure with supernodes hosted in Microsoft data centers. Since that time we’ve understood that additional changes have been made for resiliency’s sake. Given all that, it’s hard to know exactly how Skype’s infrastructure exists today. This article below does, though, provide some background into the basics of peer-to-peer (P2P) infrastructure.I have a series of posts planned over the next few weeks related primarily to Skype and some of the changes brought about in Skype 5.0 for Windows that are interesting from a technology point-of-view – but in order to write those posts, I need to build a bit of a…
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Another Hotel Fails To Support Skype – Here’s Why Skype’s P2P Connection Model Breaks Their System
Continue Reading: Another Hotel Fails To Support Skype – Here’s Why Skype’s P2P Connection Model Breaks Their SystemUPDATE: When I stayed at this same hotel in August 2010, I no longer had the issue with Skype being blocked. Presumably they got a smarter network monitoring system. While this specific hotel now works with Skype, the same issue will undoubtedly be out there for many other hotels and locations.
Summary: Hotels restricting the number of simultaneous network connections per user may wind up blocking legitimate usage of Skype. Skype’s peer-to-peer network model uses a high number of network connections to synchronize multi-party group chats.
Read on for the full story, network diagrams, etc….
Two weeks ago on a visit to Voxeo’s corporate headquarters in Orlando, FL, I stayed at the Grand Bohemian Hotel, conveniently located only a block or so away. Arriving in the early evening, I checked in, got to my room and immediately plugged my laptop into the Ethernet port to catch up on what had happened while I’d been offline traveling. As is the case in many hotels, I was asked to login and pay through a system from “Nomadix”. I did so… and very quickly started to see Skype coming online, my other IM client (Adium) coming online, email starting to flow in and…
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Of Skype, SIP, P2P and P2PSIP…
Continue Reading: Of Skype, SIP, P2P and P2PSIP…Over on Voxeo’s Speaking of Standards blog, I put up a post today on:Could Skype realistically replace its P2P algorithm with P2PSIP?
I decided to write it after reading the comments on Phil Wolff’s post last week over on Skype Journal… mostly to talk a bit more about what P2PSIP is and how it compares to what Skype is using now.
While it’s interesting to talk about on a technical level – and I admit to a complete fascination with the technology behind P2P networks – the reality is that none of us really know anything about what Skype is up to. 🙂
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Does the Skype/Mangosoft patent settlement about “dynamic directory service” bode ill for the emerging P2P landscape?
Continue Reading: Does the Skype/Mangosoft patent settlement about “dynamic directory service” bode ill for the emerging P2P landscape?Now that we see some incredibly powerful peer-to-peer (P2P) technology models emerging in the telephony/communication space, will we see that innovation being challenged or delayed by patent lawsuits?The New Hampshire Business Review reported this week that Skype has settled a patent lawsuit with Mangosoft for $2.3 million over a patent apparently related to “dynamic directory service”. Now per the NHBR article, it would appear that Mangosoft is fading away as a company and indeed while the website appears on initial view to be there, the management team is simply the one CEO and the newest “news” on the web site dates from early 2007. Their news release about the settlement with eBay is very brief and refers now to “MangoSoft Intellectual Property, Inc.” Phil Wolff over at Skype Journal notes that MangoSoft’s SEC filing is also brief (but discloses the amount). Looking back at MangoSoft’s 2007 annual report, they are themselves very clear on what they are doing:
BUSINESS STRATEGY
We no longer develop new software products or services. We continue to market, sell and support our software services. Our strategy also includes seeking strategic business partnerships and distribution channels to leverage our patented technology. All of our business…
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Skype and SIP interop – the two sides of the issue raised by Michael Robertson
Continue Reading: Skype and SIP interop – the two sides of the issue raised by Michael RobertsonShould Skype open up it’s network to other users? to other networks? Should Skype stop preaching about “openness” when it’s network remains closed?In the middle of last week, there was quite a little storm raised in the VoIP corner of the blogosphere after Andy Abramson published a letter from Gizmo Project founder Michael Robertson critical of Skype’s openness after Skype continued to call upon the FCC to open the wireless network to applications. (See also here and this Skype blog post (and this one) for background.) Being at ITEXPO last week, I didn’t have the chance to blog about this at the length I felt it deserved until today.
First, for some context, here are some of the blog posts last week:
- Andy in VoIPWatch: Gizmo Project’s Michael Robertson Sounds Off
- Phil Wolff asks some pointed questions (of Michael) at Skype Journal: Michael Robertson says Skype should open to Gizmo Project
- Phil posts: Michael Robertson Responds where Michael responds to Phil’s questions
- Andy responds: For the Record, Gizmo vs. Skype
- Alec Saunders had a whole cast of characters on Friday’s SquawkBox, including Andy, Michael Robertson, Jim Courtney (Skype Journal) and a good number of others.
- Phil posts: A few…
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Want to understand Peer-to-Peer SIP (P2PSIP)? Listen to this podcast…
Continue Reading: Want to understand Peer-to-Peer SIP (P2PSIP)? Listen to this podcast…What if we could design SIP-based VOIP systems… but without any servers? What if we could have SIP endpoints just communicate with each other and “self-organize” into networks? What if we could essentially build an open standards-based version of Skype? How would it work? Who would use it? How would we secure it?Those are all questions we discussed in the Squawk Box podcast / interview I did with David Bryan on July 10th. David is the co-chair of the IETF’s P2PSIP Working Group and also the CEO of SIPeerior Technologies. It was a great interview where we covered all these questions and much, much more.
P2PSIP, to me, represents one of the most exciting new directions for SIP research and is something I’m definitely following closely. I wrote about my interest in P2PSIP clouds (and connecting them to larger clouds) at some length over on Voxeo’s Speaking of Standards blog… it’s all about clouds of SIP communication… and how we weave them all together. It’s a fascinating time.
If you’d like to understand what P2PSIP is all about, please do definitely check out the Squawk Box podcast… and then, if you are so inclined, head over to P2PSIP.org to…
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Additional thoughts on Skype and hotel networks – there’s issues on both sides…
Continue Reading: Additional thoughts on Skype and hotel networks – there’s issues on both sides…To my immense surprise, my article yesterday about my challenges with Skype and my hotel Internet connection just hit TechMeme today, so welcome, anyone who is coming my way from there. But that also prompted me to want to offer up some additional thoughts on the subject.
First, I’m actually quite annoyed at the Best Western here in Ontario, CA, for essentially blocking Skype by virtue of their network security traffic policies. If travel shall bring me to Ontario, CA, again, you can be pretty sure that I will not be staying here. Skype has become an important communication tool for me and <cue violins>was the way I was intending to call home and stay in touch with my family</violins>. Skype has worked great at the hotel I was at earlier in the week in Phoenix and in fact at every other hotel I’ve been at lately. I do intend to contact Best Western to express my dissatisfaction at being unable to use the program.
Having said that, as a security professional I do understand WHY the security team at the Internet provider to this Best Western hotel has the policies in place that they do. As Phil Wolff commented,…
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How using Skype disrupted my hotel Internet connection and locked me out
Continue Reading: How using Skype disrupted my hotel Internet connection and locked me outUPDATE: I have now posted some additional thoughts about this issue.
It’s been a frustrating time here at the hotel in Ontario, CA, where all I’ve been trying to do is use the Internet connection. I’m staying at the Best Western and did so largely because they advertised free high-speed Internet (they were also cheaper than others). First annoyance was discovering that I was too far away from their APs to use wireless, but since I had an ethernet cable I just plugged into the wall jack and expected to get access. The very first time I connected, I did get an IP address and could see an entry in my routing table for the default gateway. However, I couldn’t ping it.
Being rather used to network troubleshooting, I did the usual things… bringing the interface up and down, disconnecting and re-connecting the cable. I even went to the hotel lobby and got a new cable in case the issue was with my portable/retractable cable.
Nothing. No net.
In desperation I did the thing that tech support always tells you to do but I avoid… reboot. Nothing.
So finally this morning I got on the phone to the Best Western…