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San Jose State University Bans Skype

MONDAY SEPTEMBER 25 2006 4:30 PM

Submitted by WilWheaton. Edited By WilWheaton.

TAGS: skype, voip

According to Ars Technica, many universities are banning the use of Skype by their students, citing bandwidth and security concerns. The latest school to issue the ban is San Jose State.

In a memo seen by Ars Technica, the SJSU Office of Information Technology says that Skype and other applications which use "grid-computing-like" networking capabilities are to be banned, but VoIP applications such as Gizmo or Wengo are still permitted for use. The memo also states that Skype's EULA is far too broad, requiring users to grant Skype general "usage rights" to the SJSU network�something that end users do not have the right to do, as it is not their network. OIT also says that the changes to the XP firewall "may prove to be an excellent vector for a worm."

At first glance, the policy seems arbitrary and draconian, especially when considering that a typical Skype packet is just 20K/sec, and users suck up tons more bandwidth than that in a typical gaming or streaming media session. However, the real concern appears to be preventing students from acting as a supernode.

[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.

While it is possible to turn off supernode functionality, instructions to do so are not included in Skype's documentation, and require a search on the Internets, which is a series of tubes, and not like a truck.

Students looking to relive the glory days of the 1960s with a nice big Skype-related protest may be disappointed, however. The ban only applies to the tubes that go into classrooms and other official areas; dorms and public areas will continue to enjoy unfiltered access.

18 Comments

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bean

STAFF

Los Angeles, CA

SEP 25, 2006 04:35 PM

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.

Does the phrase "single Skype client" refer to the client acting as the Supernode? Because if so...

*GASP*

A Gigabyte a month! Oh my godzorz! How ever will they handle that?

Just out of curiosity, are the same schools that are banning Skype banning BitTorrent? It stands to reason they would, since BitTorrent is an infinitely more voracious bandwidth-devourer.

formerviking

Denver, PA

May 2006

SEP 25, 2006 04:37 PM

WilWheaton said:
According to Ars Technica, many universities are banning the use of Skype by their students, citing bandwidth and security concerns. The latest school to issue the ban is San Jose State.

In a memo seen by Ars Technica, the SJSU Office of Information Technology says that Skype and other applications which use "grid-computing-like" networking capabilities are to be banned, but VoIP applications such as Gizmo or Wengo are still permitted for use. The memo also states that Skype's EULA is far too broad, requiring users to grant Skype general "usage rights" to the SJSU network_something that end users do not have the right to do, as it is not their network. OIT also says that the changes to the XP firewall "may prove to be an excellent vector for a worm."

Just when I'm convinced that I'm a geek , along comes a article I don't even begin to fathom and I realize I may not be as big of a geek as I first thought . Thanks for the morale boost Wil !

dkmfc

Germany

January 2003

SEP 25, 2006 04:44 PM

formerviking said:
Just when I'm convinced that I'm a geek , along comes a article I don't even begin to fathom and I realize I may not be as big of a geek as I first thought . Thanks for the morale boost Wil !

once you master this:

require a search on the Internets, which is a series of tubes, and not like a truck.

you will have all you need to know about the intarwebs.

that, and most networking problems are directly related to cabling issues.

Skism

I'm lost

September 2005

SEP 25, 2006 04:52 PM

Sounds like a pile of horse shit to me.

You have to pay enough to go and get that sheet of paper, it would be nice if these pricks could cut you a break on using a free service to call home.

binary

Brooklyn, NY

May 2004

SEP 25, 2006 04:57 PM

Skism said:
Sounds like a pile of horse shit to me.

You have to pay enough to go and get that sheet of paper, it would be nice if these pricks could cut you a break on using a free service to call home.

The ban only applies to the tubes that go into classrooms and other official areas; dorms and public areas will continue to enjoy unfiltered access.

Al

SUICIDEGIRL

Christmas Island

SEP 25, 2006 05:00 PM

binary said:

The ban only applies to the tubes that go into classrooms and other official areas; dorms and public areas will continue to enjoy unfiltered access.

Heh, that's what I just said, only a lot prettier.

malkav11

Saint Paul, MN

July 2003

SEP 25, 2006 05:01 PM

I can't say as I see any reason VOIP and IM clients should be allowed in a classroom setting except by special request of the teacher. Or in open labs. And I'd personally ban VOIP use in public areas, much like I'd ban cellphone use, but that's because I'm easily irritated.

But specifically banning Skype and nothing else is stupid, especially when it sounds like they'd be perfectly willing to work out a way to deal with the specific complaint (supernodes).

emotedcreations

Germany

July 2006

SEP 25, 2006 05:48 PM

What is Skype? Lord I'm technologically backwards...

dkmfc

Germany

January 2003

SEP 25, 2006 05:50 PM

emotedcreations said:
What is Skype? Lord I'm technologically backwards...

a proprietary peer to peer internet telephony.

pingz

Richardson, TX

January 2003

SEP 25, 2006 05:52 PM

The school is right to disallow Skype on it's network...

Does the phrase "single Skype client" refer to the client acting as the Supernode? Because if so...

*GASP*

A Gigabyte a month! Oh my godzorz! How ever will they handle that?

When you consider that SJSU has around 30,000 students.... that can add up to a crap load of bandwidth.

Still this might be acceptable if this was bandwidth that the students were actually using, but that is not the case. How Skype works a supernode will be hosting conversations between people that are outside of your network and have nothing to do with you. So it's exactly like giving the world free use of your bandwidth. In this case it's not some DSL connection... it's the entire available bandwidth of the college.

This is a design flaw in Skype and it will always be banned from some place or another because of it.

AlecZorab

United Kingdom

September 2006

SEP 25, 2006 05:54 PM

Bean Said:
A Gigabyte a month! Oh my godzorz! How ever will they handle that?

I think the worry is that if you've got a couple of thousand students doing it, it adds up pretty quickly, especially since (in the UK, at least) Universities actually pay for bandwidth on a per bit basis.

thefreak

NEWSWIRE

Gardner, MA

SEP 25, 2006 05:59 PM

emotedcreations said:
What is Skype? Lord I'm technologically backwards...

Behold, the non-boobied wonders of the Interweb...

http://www.skype.com/

-TM

pavlovsdog

Asheville, NC

May 2004

SEP 25, 2006 06:03 PM

That article made my nose bleed.

WilWheaton

Los Angeles, CA

June 2005

SEP 25, 2006 06:31 PM

malkav11 said:
I can't say as I see any reason VOIP and IM clients should be allowed in a classroom setting except by special request of the teacher. Or in open labs. And I'd personally ban VOIP use in public areas, much like I'd ban cellphone use, but that's because I'm easily irritated.

But specifically banning Skype and nothing else is stupid, especially when it sounds like they'd be perfectly willing to work out a way to deal with the specific complaint (supernodes).

It seems entirely appropriate to me for individual professors to filter access to teh intartweebs in their classrooms, if they see fit to do so. In fact, I'm surprised they don't do this already.

bean

STAFF

Los Angeles, CA

SEP 25, 2006 06:35 PM

pingz said:
The school is right to disallow Skype on it's network...

Does the phrase "single Skype client" refer to the client acting as the Supernode? Because if so...

*GASP*

A Gigabyte a month! Oh my godzorz! How ever will they handle that?

When you consider that SJSU has around 30,000 students.... that can add up to a crap load of bandwidth.

I don't know, I guess that depends on how you define "a crap load," and how much bandwidth the school is set up with to begin with. 1000 supernodes on the network (I can't imagine a scenario where they'd have more than that...the school I went to had 27000 students and about 2000 in on-campus housing, and we're talking about the campus network, not the student housing network), at an average of 1 Gigabyte a month would translate to about 3Mbit/sec, which wouldn't even max out your standard small-office high-speed DSL, upstream or down. Now, granted, the sheer number of packets traveling across the network could easily clog the afore-mentioned high-speed DSL, but I'd hope the university's routing hardware is more sophisticated than that.

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