asterisk users - Jul 2011 - skype for asterisk usage in the future

hi:
   I am a SFA (skype for asterisk) user. I had ask Digium questions
about SFA usage in the future. but they seem too busy to reply. so I
tried at this list. I hope there are SFA users or Digium people can
solve my confusion.

1. SFA can not be registered after 26 July. so I want to prepare a
backup machine for our server. I read in the document that I can
re-register my SFA once. so I want to make sure if I can re-register with
my backup server now, and in the same time my production machine still
function correctly. and if my production machine is broken one day, my
backup machine can go on line. in short: can I keep two machines with one
license now? I hope so because I can not re-register later after 26 July.

  2. I saw SFA will not be supported after two years. my question is:
although it is not supported, can I still use it? I want to buy more
licenses now if I can still use it after two years even without official
support.

  thanks a lot for your kindly help!!

Regards,
tbskyd

Will you consider alternatives such as siptosis? The uncertainties are really
there for SFA

CK Lee

On 12 Jul, 2011, at 10:48 AM, d tbsky <tbskyd at gmail.com> wrote:
> hi:
>   I am a SFA (skype for asterisk) user. I had ask Digium questions
> about SFA usage in the future. but they seem too busy to reply. so I
> tried at this list. I hope there are SFA users or Digium people can
> solve my confusion.
> 
> 1. SFA can not be registered after 26 July. so I want to prepare a
> backup machine for our server. I read in the document that I can
> re-register my SFA once. so I want to make sure if I can re-register with
> my backup server now, and in the same time my production machine still
> function correctly. and if my production machine is broken one day, my
> backup machine can go on line. in short: can I keep two machines with one
> license now? I hope so because I can not re-register later after 26 July.
> 
>  2. I saw SFA will not be supported after two years. my question is:
> although it is not supported, can I still use it? I want to buy more
> licenses now if I can still use it after two years even without official
> support.
> 
>  thanks a lot for your kindly help!!
> 
> Regards,
> tbskyd
> 
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On 07/11/2011 09:48 PM, d tbsky wrote:
> 1. SFA can not be registered after 26 July. so I want to prepare a
> backup machine for our server. I read in the document that I can
> re-register my SFA once. so I want to make sure if I can re-register with
> my backup server now, and in the same time my production machine still
> function correctly. and if my production machine is broken one day, my
> backup machine can go on line. in short: can I keep two machines with one
> license now? I hope so because I can not re-register later after 26 July.
Yes, this is acceptable.
>    2. I saw SFA will not be supported after two years. my question is:
> although it is not supported, can I still use it? I want to buy more
> licenses now if I can still use it after two years even without official
> support.
It is unknown whether it will continue to be usable after that period; 
Skype has the ability to disable SFA from accessing the Skype network if 
they feel that is what they want to do. Since it won't get any updates 
between now and then, it is very likely to be obsolete (from a 'Skype 
protocol' point of view) in two years and it seems quite likely that 
they won't want it accessing the network any more. It would be best to 
plan for it being non-functional after the two year support period is over.

-- 
Kevin P. Fleming
Digium, Inc. | Director of Software Technologies
Jabber: kfleming at digium.com | SIP: kpfleming at digium.com | Skype: kpfleming
445 Jan Davis Drive NW - Huntsville, AL 35806 - USA
Check us out at www.digium.com & www.asterisk.org

On Tuesday 12 Jul 2011, d tbsky wrote:
> hi:
>    I am a SFA (skype for asterisk) user. I had ask Digium questions
> about SFA usage in the future. but they seem too busy to reply. so I
> tried at this list. I hope there are SFA users or Digium people can
> solve my confusion.
Poor you!

To my mind, Skype with its opaque, proprietary protocols is the exact opposite 
of what telecommunications is supposed to be about.

I can make a call, or send an SMS, from my HTC on Vodafone to my friend's 
Samsung on Tesco without thinking twice about it, and that's the way we all 
expect it to be.  But if it hadn't been for governments enforcing standards,
the mobile networks could well have ended up fragmentated; with different 
handset manufacturers and different network operators all using competing, 
proprietary standards to lock one another out and their customers in.
>   2. I saw SFA will not be supported after two years. my question is:
> although it is not supported, can I still use it? I want to buy more
> licenses now if I can still use it after two years even without official
> support.
That depends entirely on whether Skype update their protocols and block out 
the old ones.  Two years is easily long enough for them to do that; 
especially given the way Skype works.  It could even do stealth upgrades in 
the background.

Look at it this way:  You've got two years to migrate away from Skype and 
start using something else -- and this time around, for the love of all 
that's sane and wholesome, be sure to choose something that supports open 
standards, so you can never get shafted the same way again.

If someone manages successfully to reverse-engineer Skype during that time, 
you *might* have a little longer; but I wouldn't bet the family farm on
that.


-- 
AJS

Answers come *after* questions.