7
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Does your company allow Skype in network? What are reasons to forbid it, and how it is enforced? Is it done for security concerns?

12 Answers 12

3
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Skype is P2P so it eats up bandwidth. Also nominates users with good connection to serve as hubs, forwarding connection between other users. That eats up lot more bandwidth and CPU. You have absolutely no control over it. Other problem with Skype, that being P2P it uses firewall punch-trough, which of course admins don't like.

3
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No. It is actively removed from managed systems. It is forbidden for bandwidth & security reasons as well as the fact that voice services and other forms of IM are provided.

3
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Skype is the voip solution for the office; when you have a small office (<10 people) it suffices.

3
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Yes we do.

For small offices it is a great tool for communicating. It can use lots of bandwidth but if the company does lots of traveling, the cost savings from international long distance can be great.

We actually use it more for chat than voice, but since it does both we don't need another IM client on the desktop.

1
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For business or personal purposes? We used to use it for business, but dropped it for a proper voip system.

I wouldn't allow it for personal use, just like I wouldn't allow IM.

2
  • For any of those. May 12, 2009 at 14:04
  • 2
    I find it interesting that the same companies that refuse to allow IM for personal use have no problem calling the employees at home or on vacation to ask them to work. I've found that whether a company restricts your ability to have a personal IM, email, or telephone conversation from the office is a good way to evaluate how you will be treated during your employment.
    – carlito
    Jun 5, 2009 at 1:32
1
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We allow and use it, although less than we used to. It used to be our main solution for inter-office communication internationally, but we now have a wider VoIP network that takes its place. We still use it to communicate between folks working at home and folks in the office on occasion, but even that's falling away as Office Communicator takes its place.

That said, we've seen no reason to block it (or external IM, for that matter)

1
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No for one of several reasons:

  1. Not SOX compliant
  2. No Central logging
  3. Resource and network bandwidth hogger
1
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It's my department's preferred medium for 'working' remote conferences (like doing an after-hours release with the people involved at home).

1
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No, it's in competition with our parent company products - we are owned by a large telco. Their product is VOIP and allows logging and monitoring of calls not just by team leaders but also by Human Resources. Control of access is what it all boils down to really.

1
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We do not allow Skype behind the firewall. We provide a good phone system, with lots of good features and excellent rates. The primary reason is to control network performance, secondary reasons are to control what gets through the firewall and to reduce opportunities for non-work activities.

We do allow the "road warriors" to have it on their laptops, but don't support it. Several of them use it to communicate with the home front.

0
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We block it using a web filter product from Websense.

0
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My co does not install it, but they did allow it as they understood some of our clients will reply faster via skype than say email.

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