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7 out of 7 people found this review helpful
2.0 stars
"One of Skype's biggest fans forced to abandon camp"
Pros: Free, PRIOR to adding video capability had GREATquality autio
Cons: uses Relay nodes and Super nodes, including your computer, hence substantial deterioration now that it includes video
Summary: Before Skype added video I couldn't praise Skype enough. We used Festoon, a free video add on with terrific quality, for video without problem.
After the Skype video upgrade our call audio quality plummeted so that intercoastal calls were incomprehensible. We went back Skype 1.3, a pre-video version, and still no improvement.
We spent days troubleshooting the problem. After more days of researching we discovered why: Skype uses a peer to peer network. When you install Skype and click "accept" you are agreeing to allow your computer to be used as a relay for other people's Skype calls. That's why if you use a program like TCPview.exe, you'll find established connections on your your computer to inidentifiable foreign computers. (They say this doesn't pose a security problem, but the idea sure makes me queezy).
We concluded this was why our CPU usage also skyrocketed after Skype 2.0 with video came out, while the quality of our calls went way down. Any computer with 256k or greater upload can be chosen by Skype to be a relay node. If you leave your computer on 24/7 and are not behind a NAT router you increase your chances of becoming a Supernode where hundreds of people will be relaying through your computer. Even with early versions I often saw TCP Skype connections to college libraries on my computer, which makes sense because their servers can handle large amounts of traffic. It also explains why my niece's college now prohibits students from using Skype on their network.
We pay for a super high bandwidth, which means we are more susceptible to having MORE relays through our computers, in other words, the advantages of our expensive premium bandwidth is being sucked away by others. Nothing in life is really free!
The peer to peer network that Skype depends upon simply can't handle the increased bandwidth their video version requires.
I hope Skype will consider removing the video, and instead using add on's like Festoon, where I believe the video is tunneled through Festoon's server, and not a series of personal computers throughout the nation.
We would continue to use Festoon, since their video quality is so great, it's set up is intuitive, logical and simple, but it unfortunatly is only used as an add on to Skype, so using it means you are also subjected to becoming a relay node or supernode.
In the interim, we're switching to Vonage for audio, and Sightspeed for video. Sightspeed is $4.95 a month for their conferencing capability, free for one to one use) If Sightspeed can gets its audio quality up, we may be able to give up Vonage and again use one sole program for intercomputer audio/video communication.
P.S. We've tried Googletalk, which has Festoon video add on capabiltiy, MS Messenger, AOL, none hold a candle to the calls via Skype before they offered Video(except Skype calls to mobile phones where quality has always been quite inferior).
The bottom line is that not using the video on Skype will only help if the peer to peer network relays that Skype uses also stops using it. Unless Skype removes the video capability, I'm afraid its curtains for a really great program.
A super great product run amuck. Such a shame!
