Chain has been recommending Skype. I like to know more about a technology before implementing it. Can skype users and geeks talk about this a little bit?

http://www.skype.com/

Here is an article about security which sounds good:

http://news.yahoo.com/s/zd/20051229/tc_zd/167514&printer=1;_ylt=AhQ7KchvEGHcupOz5Z9UVdhY.3QA;_ylu=X3oDMTA3MXN1bHE0BHNlYwN0bWE-

Skype Security Questioned Nicole Price Fasig - PC Magazine
Thu Dec 29, 7:44 AM ET

Skype has already made waves in Voice over IP (VoIP) telephone service for consumers, but its more recent extension into the corporate arena has raised new issues. Info-Tech Research Group, an IT analyst firm, has released an advisory cautioning corporate users about the potential dangers of placing business calls on the Net via Skype.

Though Skype calls are encrypted from end to end, it is difficult for IT departments to monitor the interactions, say Info-Tech researchers. In industries subject to compliance regulations, Skype's Internet calls could be major violations of corporate policy and the law, they say.

"The bottom line is that even a mediocre hacker could take advantage of a Skype vulnerability," says Ross Armstrong, a research analyst for Info-Tech.

Skype officials maintain that they have addressed the pressing security issues. Tom Berson, a principal at Anagram Laboratories, has also conducted a review of Skype's encryption. He calls any sort of attack "computationally infeasible," and stands by Skype's security methods. "The designers of Skype did not hesitate to employ cryptography widely and well in order to establish trust and confidentiality for their peer-to-peer services," Dr. Berson says. He says that Skype conversations may even be more secure than those over a regular phone or via e-mail. Berson also points out that in some markets, Internet coverage is more widespread and reliable than phone service.

One question I have, is what will call recipients be able to see when I contact them? IP, email addy, name, what? How will my incoming call be identified, can I assign an arbitrary or fictitious name? Also, how does it authenticate others calling in? And so forth.

Who can "eavesdrop" on a Skype conversation, and how? Are their logs or records retained somewhere? Etc

Chain should be able to answer all these questions, he's right there in Tallinn where skype was developed.

Did you know that a prevalent nickname for Estonia is E-stonia, because of the high tech developements within the country. Geez, who would have ever thought that a country 99% white would embrace technology. :rolleyes:

Chain already sold me on it, but I want to hear from some other users and technogeeks. Where is that one bossy chap, can't recall his name, I thought perhaps he'd like to pontificate.

Here's some info for ya. Admittedly, this is from a security consultant that was hired by skype, but after reading it I can tell you from a professional standpoint that this is pretty much industry standard encryption security. It's VPN grade stuff.

This is PDF format.

http://www.skype.com/security/files/2005-031%20security%20evaluation.pdf

It goes without saying to always keep a firewall and good AV software on your machine regardless.

Chain already sold me on it, but I want to hear from some other users and technogeeks. Where is that one bossy chap, can't recall his name, I thought perhaps he'd like to pontificate.

I don't know enough about Skype to make an informed comment so I asked a friend of mine(who could probably hack NORAD if he wanted) about it.

He said Skype is good but Damaka is better. http://www.damaka.com/

Sound quality and security are superior to Skype(he says) because Damaka uses Peer to Peer(P2P) that is secure end to end in contrast to Skypes relay mechanism.

The only downside to Damaka is it doesn't have PSTN connectivity but they are working on it, supposedly.

Thats all I know about it.