[GLLUG] Impressed with skype

Tue Sep 18 11:15:51 EDT 2007

Also, there are services that offer all or most of the same features of
Skype, but without the protocol and client lock-in. This is one that
I've tried:

http://www.gizmoproject.com/

Here's what I like about them. I don't mean to sound like an
advertisement, I just think the overall flexibility and feature set is
extremely impressive.

* An account costs nothing and you can create as many accounts as you
want.
* You can call people on the same network for free.
* Talk to people on other VoIP networks like FWD for free.
* In certain places around Michigan, friends and family can dial a
gateway number and talk to you for free for up to 15 minutes.
* They have free softphones for each of the major operating systems
including the Treo and the Nokia Internet tables and phones.
* You can use any other SIP-speaking software like Asterisk or kphone.
* You can use SIP-speaking hardware like the Linksys PAP2.
* If you want to go all-VoIP, their incoming and outgoing plans are
pretty darn affordable. ($35/year and $0.019/min respectively. No free
local calls that I can tell, though.)

On Tue, 2007-09-18 at 10:42 -0400, Michael George wrote:
> I don't like skype because they use proprietary software AND they use a
> proprietary protocol (and for all I know they use a proprietary codec). 
> The VoIP world doesn't need that kind of lock-in.
> 
> I think it would be better for them to offer SIP or IAX2 service so that
> *when* I get sick of making all my calls in front of a computer I can opt
> to use a VoIP hardphone ("Hey, McFly, people don't like to sit in one
> place talking on the phone!"), or I can put a VoIP phone system in place.
> 
> With Skype, there is skype and the skype soft phone.  As far as I know,
> that's the end of the options.  That's not progress, that's crap.
> 
> My inlaws used Skype when they were in Austria this past summer.  I hated
> talking to them through that.  It sounded like they were talking through a
> can!  Maybe a real handset would have helped, but who would know?  You
> can't try it.
> 
> If you want to do VoIP, then get a service like Teliax or Telesip or
> something and do it right with real standards so you have the freedom to
> choose your end of the system.
> 
> But that's just my opinion.  I can assure you it's *right*, but it's still
> "just my opinion"... ;-)
> 
> On Tue, September 18, 2007 9:59 am, Brent Barker wrote:
> > Ah, I remember reading that /. article. I read through the comments
> > and discovered that the article was saying that skype reads the
> > /etc/passwd file, and that was the problem. Another person mentioned
> > that
> >
> > "The most common reason these applications and others read /etc/passwd
> > is that they call getpwuid() to obtain a struct that contains the
> > user's home directory. Now the application knows where to find its
> > configuration files."
> >
> > Additionally, if your distro uses shadow passwords (I know Gentoo and
> > Debian do), you are not vulnerable to password-stealing.
> >
> > A more extensive answer is provided here:
> >
> > Seems like people don't understand unix at all, when they post to
> > security lists...
> > Just checking your own identity in unix requires a call to getpwnam,
> > getpwent or their equivalent, which means that a function call in
> > glibc has to read the password file. Practically every unix program
> > does that... It reads in the whole file in memory and looks for you,
> > unless you're using the db source, yp, nis+ or an external module:
> > nss_ldap, nss_mysql, nss_pgsql. It's doing that to find YOU out...
> > That's normal, system-wide behaviour, and not sinister at all(that's
> > also why there's a nscd daemon to cache those results, to prevent your
> > machine from grinding to a halt if you have 200k+ entries in that
> > file.
> >
> > Now unless the legacy api gets redesigned to NOT do a line by line
> > scan, anyone using strace/ltrace/dtrace/tusc needs to filter out these
> > internal "housekeeping" calls, which are perfectly normal, needing to
> > find out if _you_ can open up your own log file...
> >
> > The /etc/passwd /etc/group files are public files precisely because
> > they are referred to in this manner. That's why shadow passwords are
> > so necessary."
> >
> > Hope that helps. I'm not worried about Skype on Linux any more than I
> > am about other closed source applications (though I don't have it
> > installed, so it's more a theoretical issue for me).
> >
> > Cheers,
> > Brent
> >
> > On 9/17/07, L Inbody <linbody at gmail.com> wrote:
> >> I seriously doubt if it will show up on any of these, but here is a
> >> pretty
> >> good blog that lists out all of the anti-rootkit options we have on
> >> linux.
> >>
> >> http://linuxhelp.blogspot.com/2006/12/various-ways-of-detecting-rootkits-in.html
> >>
> >> Unfortunately I am in CA in a hotel with really slow broadband so when
> >> the
> >> mp3 downloads I'll take a listen tomorrow.
> >>
> >>
> >>
> >> On 9/17/07, Karl Schuttler <rexykik at gmail.com> wrote:
> >> > I got this information from Pauldotcom security weekly, episode 82.
> >> > http://hydrogen.oshean.org/pauldotcom-SW-episode82.mp3
> >> for the show. I
> >> > believe their source material is
> >> >
> >> http://yro.slashdot.org/article.pl?sid=07/08/26/1312256
> >> >
> >> > I suppose it's not exactly a rootkit in that it probably doesn't root
> >> > your system, but it shows that they are up to shady shit that they
> >> > don't need to be messing around with.
> >> >
> >> > I highly suggest taking a listen to the show; it is rather informative
> >> > and entertaining.
> >> >
> >> >
> >> >
> >> > On 9/17/07, Brent Barker < b.w.barker at smokejive.net> wrote:
> >> > > Could you explain more or provide a link? I'd like to know more
> >> about
> >> that.
> >> > >
> >> > > On 9/17/07, Karl Schuttler <rexykik at gmail.com > wrote:
> >> > > > Skype is evil. Pretty much a rootkit, even on linux.
> >> > > >
> >> > > > On 9/17/07, Eduardo Cesconetto <eduardo at cesconetto.com> wrote:
> >> > > > > I like Skype too, but I was told that is evil..
> >> > > > >
> >> > > > > On Sep 17, 2007, at 3:11 PM, Steven Sayers wrote:
> >> > > > >
> >> > > > > > I just used skype to call my mom. This is really useful. My
> >> cell
> >> in
> >> > > > > > the
> >> > > > > > basement sucks.
> >> > > > > > _______________________________________________
> >> > > > > > linux-user mailing list
> >> > > > > > linux-user at egr.msu.edu
> >> > > > > >
> >> http://mailman.egr.msu.edu/mailman/listinfo/linux-user
> >> > > > >
> >> > > > > _______________________________________________
> >> > > > > linux-user mailing list
> >> > > > > linux-user at egr.msu.edu
> >> > > > >
> >> http://mailman.egr.msu.edu/mailman/listinfo/linux-user
> >> > > > >
> >> > > > _______________________________________________
> >> > > > linux-user mailing list
> >> > > > linux-user at egr.msu.edu
> >> > > >
> >> http://mailman.egr.msu.edu/mailman/listinfo/linux-user
> >> > > >
> >> > >
> >> > _______________________________________________
> >> > linux-user mailing list
> >> > linux-user at egr.msu.edu
> >> > http://mailman.egr.msu.edu/mailman/listinfo/linux-user
> >> >
> >>
> >>
> >>
> >> --
> >> Running Linux? Are you completely out of your mind.  That thing is a
> >> rip-off.  It comes with no viruses, no Trojans, no malware , etc .......
> >> _______________________________________________
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> >> http://mailman.egr.msu.edu/mailman/listinfo/linux-user
> >>
> >>
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> >
> 
> 
> -Michael George
>  Ideal Solution, LLC
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-- 
Charles Ulrich
Ideal Solution, LLC - http://www.idealso.com