[ale] Cable modem recommendation

Fri Apr 20 09:35:15 EDT 2012

Well, and let’s be clear here, if you are using VOIP you ARE being monitored.  Or at least you could be.  Just like your emails can be read by every switch it passes through.  If you don’t use encryption (ignoring conspiracies) your transmission can be intercepted and re-assembled and the voice packets can be plainly heard. Just the nature of VOIP and SIP.

Damon at damtek.com

From: ale-bounces at ale.org [mailto:ale-bounces at ale.org] On Behalf Of Lightner, Jeff
Sent: Friday, April 20, 2012 9:23 AM
To: Atlanta Linux Enthusiasts
Subject: Re: [ale] Cable modem recommendation

If you think ALL your calls aren’t subject to being monitored you’re living in a dream world.   It used to disgust me when I worked for a cell phone company how often I saw government regulations that essentially required back doors into all innovations made.   Don’t forget that W and his Republican cronies began illegally getting data from all the major phone companies in the name of counter-terrorism for ALL calls in America not just those from “suspected terrorists” and the Democrats who did much hand-wringing about how evil this practice was actually legalized it retro-actively after they took congress back.

________________________________

From: ale-bounces at ale.org [mailto:ale-bounces at ale.org] On Behalf Of Michael Campbell
Sent: Friday, April 20, 2012 8:18 AM
To: Atlanta Linux Enthusiasts
Subject: Re: [ale] Cable modem recommendation

On Thu, Apr 19, 2012 at 4:37 PM, Ron Frazier (ALE) <atllinuxenthinfo at techstarship.com> wrote:

On 4/19/2012 8:17 AM, Michael Campbell wrote: 

A colleague of mine uses Ooma and raves about it.  

I use Skype dial-out (I can dial regular #'s with it), and it works well enough for me.   I'm on business in Belgium right now, and I use it to call my home phone in Atlanta on the anemic hotel wifi, and it works very well with voice.  It also works moderately well with video on a Skype-Skype call to home also.

I don't have a Jihad against Microsoft, so I'll continue to use Skype until a better valued option comes up, or it starts to suck.  So far neither have happened.

I haven't tried Google Voice from my computer to regular # yet, but I might try that in the next couple days.

Hi Michael and all,

I use both Microsoft and Linux products routinely, and don't have an axe to grind for or against either.  However, I thought I'd mention this regarding Skype.  Microsoft filed for a patent back in 2009 and it was recently published regarding allowing the covert "wiretapping" (my words) of VOIP calls.  Now that they've bought Skype, I think you have to assume that your Skype call could be monitored and recorded.  Now, it's supposed to be only legally authorized wiretapping, and I understand that law enforcement sometimes has a need for that.  However, it used to be only the highly regulated telco that had access to wiretap your calls.  Now, it's a less regulated (I would say) mega corporation that's routing the call, and one that's not intrinsically in the phone business.  I think that, if I needed VOIP for anything remotely sensitive, and if I had an alternative that I could encrypt, I'd avoid using Skype.  I don't know precisely what that alternative is though.  Just my 2 cents.

Security concerns noted and appreciated.  While I understand where you're coming from, (and each user is different), I don't use Skype for sensitive comms.   Mainly business stuff between colleagues (and Skype is the standard where I work, so I more or less have to use it for that), and talks to my family about dull family stuff when I'm away from the house.

Given that Skype's data goes through a (large?) number of different routers, networks, and such before and after it hits Skype's/MS' servers, worrying about MS specifically recording my calls is actually the least of any worries I'd have (if I had any to begin with).

In short, I'm less concerned about THAT attack vector on my calling since I believe there are so many other easier ones*.  And the NSA has  all my data already.

* One that does give me slight pause is now MS owns the proprietary protocol specs for Skype.  If I understand correctly, one of Skype's security features was that it has not yet been reverse engineered very well (or at all?).  Perhaps that's wrong; I haven't really kept up with the progress along those lines.

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