Re: Skype in the production environment

[Chris Green <cmgreen () UAB EDU>]

John Hoffoss wrote:

> >    4) http://safecomputing.umn.edu/safepractices/skype.html
>
> You can modify a registry entry to prevent Skype from becoming a
supernode.
> This is a simple and effective tactic to moderate the usage of
bandwidth while
> a computer is your University's network. I do not know if this
violate's the
> Skype EULA. (Also note the University of Minnesota does not prohibit
the use
> of Skype.)

They document doing that in their
http://www.skype.com/business/security/ guide and support doing it via
GPO templates.    I've got a tech savvy relative that has moved
collaboration meetings from being a $300/phone call conference bridge
into $80/month skype + land line for the one or two folks that will need
to call in.    Savings for weekly meetings went from $1200 -> $80
(multiplied times 3 or 4 meetings..) and they got voice transcripts.  

When blocking things, we try to be as 'content-neutral' as practical.
We've only ventured into outright banning of a few P2P
(gnutella/ares/etc.) protocols here based never having a person need it
for a production use.