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fyi,

if you didn't already now. skype beta 3.0 seems to be working as of today in the UAE.

Cheers,

D

somehow , someway , for a reason or another ....... i cant open the skype website ?
is this happening with others ?

I cant even open the site of skype....

site cannot be accessed
http://www.skype.com/

Network Error (tcp_error)


A communication error occurred: ""
The Web Server may be down, too busy, or experiencing other problems preventing it from responding to requests. You may wish to try again at a later time.

For assistance, contact Customer Support.

The site is blocked.

if anyone got it to work, can you PM me please?

Yep - its working. I downloaded it on a work machine and I am logged in now.

Going to read through the release notes to try and figure out why this one works. It took a bit of time to login so my suspicion is that it tried to connect over its regular ports and failed, so then went on to tunnel through port 80 (MSM has been doing this for awhile.

Yes it does work.

jabbajabba its simple the current filter is blocking skype traffic by analysing the packet, with 3.0 they must have changed somethign in the packet so it looks different .. something as simple as a bit flip would throw the filter off. Etisalat and the TRA are gonna lose this stupid game anyway. there will always be ways around it.. asshats.

as for now skype 3.0 beta works like a charm.

has anyone got the pc to PHONE part working in the new skype? i can only do a voice chat with other online skype users. how do i call a number in USA (which is still free till end of this year)
any help appreciated.

yes PC to phone is working, i tried it to Israel.

Is it against the law to use skype or is it just blocked? Just wondering if there are any aspects I should be wary of.

Sidetrack;

There is a cool new firefox plugin for the latest version of skype - it picks up phone numbers in your browser and makes them clickable skype call buttons - well handy.

This sounds great. Gotta try it later tonight. woohoo!

MaaaD wrote:yes PC to phone is working, i tried it to Israel.

dunno how you guys r doing it, im in abu dhabi and pc-phone is NOT working .
i also tried voipstunt with 10Euros credit and thats not working either. but i can use pc-pc voice for both.

To better understand why it works with some of you...and why it doesnt.

Download

http://www.nirsoft.net/utils/cports.html

it will show you what ports skype or any other program you are using uses to connect to the Internet.

ports are like channel or roads that are used by the program to communicate over the Internet.

This way we can better understand how some of you got connected...

Port 80 (http)
5060 (used by SIP n other phone softwares)

Theres a difference between using msn n yahoo voice chatting...and Skype n others....they use different protocols and ports. Thats why you probably can do voice talk with yahoo...but not with Skype.


Etisalat blocks these in 2 ways.

Software Application Signature: Ever software that uses the internet has a unique id to itself and itself only. Regardless of how it connects to the internet, its signature id is revealed. Thats probably why some versions work...n some others dont....Skyp probably changed they applications signatures name. You can easily find out the signature name of an application by using a network sniffer such as Ethereal.

Ports: common ports for voice over ip are 5060, and others. Sometimes, these ports are shared for other reasons. Take MSN for example. You cant block MSN using port 80 because port 80 is also used for internet browsing. But other ports are strictly used for their own purpose. Use google and type "5060" and see what pops up.

Protocols: more like ways in which computers communicate. They probably blocked SIP protocol...very impotant protocol needed for voice over ip to work. For skpye for example.


And dont forget to also state where you are connecting from? a freezone? Unsensored internet? Home use internet connection? and so on...
I got bored so i wrote this.

Skype doesnt use the normal ports they use 443 HTTPS port and its encrypted thats why blocking it is very challenging and they have to rely on packet analysis to do that. So every time a new version comes out the company doing the blocking will have to install a new filter for the new shape of the packet. its a losing fight i tell ya ...

I heard that the Big E's proxy does not block secure sockets layer (https)

Yup just checked wikipedia:

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Etisalat

Etisalat also individually bans websites by either IP address. In some cases, when alternative access is available (Etisalat does not proxy the HTTPS protocol, so if a site opens https ports it will always be available)

hello everyone,
please where could i get the skype beta 3???

MaaaD, you're one cool bloke.

if they blocked HTTPS: u wud not be able to check ur emails...u wud not be able to do online banking...pay online...and a gazillion are things.

Https is not blocked...and u can use that to exchange data...because firewalls cannot read packets that are tunneled throught a secure connection (packet filtering doesnt work)

so all u have to do is find a server that will give u the stuff u want.

I have used this and it works OK.

http://www.gtsvpn.co.uk