Wednesday, July 25, 2012

Hey kids, we bought and fixed Skype just for you!

Skype has denied reports that recent changes to its architecture would make calls and messages easier to monitor by law enforcement.

Skype, a worldwide Internet-based voice and video calling service Microsoft acquired last year for $8.5 billion, said Tuesday the changes to its peer-to-peer infrastructure were done to improve the quality of service.

What it did was move "supernodes" into datacenters, Skype said. Supernodes act as directories that find the right recipient for calls. In the past, a user's computer that was capable of acting as a directory was upgraded from a node to a supernode. A node is the generic term for computers on a network. (more)