Re: Speak Freely End of Life Announcement

I am not happy reading John Walkers anouncment. 

As others already pointed out, SF is the most usable secure internet
telefony program running on both UNIX/Linux and Windows. John deserves
our gratitude and deep respect for what he has created for us.

Although I deplore it, I have to admit the correctness of John Walkers
analysis about the internet getting a place where users are no more equal
and the vast majority will not be able in the future to "accept a
call/connection" from another user. 

Big interests (Telcos, goverment agencies, record industry etc) want to
confine the "normal" user into a "consumer" role and do not like that
everybody can be a "server" or a "peer".

This could be the end of all kinds of peer to peer applications, not
only internet telefony.

Also I have to admit that a open and correct "End of Live" declaration
is far better then just abandoning a program. More so, as John  allows
interested developers to continue with it, if they want. 

I think, we should think about the point, John is making on the
future impossibility to use internet telefony peer to peer.

Let us discuss possible alternatives to the NAT infested internet:
1 going back to dial up internet connections
2 pushing internet providers to give us IPv6
3 going back to direct modem to modem connections via telefone
  (not saving money, but allowing to encrypt telefony)
4 waiting on mobile phones you can run programs on offering an API
  you can use to encrypt speech. (Not saving money, but privacy)

1. Pro: easy for most (windows) user, cheap (in Germany), you can find
        providers who give you internet with no NAT.
   Con: You must announce your actual internet adress by using a LWL
        Server or a dyndns service.
        You must pay for the dial up time. 
   Bootom line: As long as there is dial up internet w/o NAT this is 
   annoying but possible.  Will do for 1 or 2 years.		

2. Pro: IPv6 will solve the NAT problem
   Con: As John pointed out, this will need much time, and as i have to
        add, powerfull interests want peer to peer to be impossible 
	without a controlling man in the middle.
   Bottom line: Try it, but have a alternative strategy


3. Pro: Everyone with an analog Telefone can call and accept calls
   Con: Saves no money, only interesting for security
        I experienced problem getting to consumer modems to connect,
	Often you have to send special AT commands to force the modem
	to offer a V34 connect.
	In the office you often need an ISDN card instead of a modem.
   	
4. Pro: This would be the killer app on mobile phones
   Con: Will we ever see this kind of mobile phones ?


On Thu, Jul 31, 2003 at 08:16:30PM +0200, Speak Freely Forum wrote:
> Message posted to the Speak Freely Forum
>   by John Walker on Thu, 31 Jul 2003 20:16:30 +0200 (MEST).
>   http://www.fourmilab.ch/wb/speak-freely.pl?rev=310
> 
> Effective January 15th, 2004, Speak Freely will be removed from the
> www.fourmilab.ch site, along with associated support such as the mailing
> lists, forum, Look Who's Listening server, and Echo server.
> 
> For details of precisely what will happen to Speak Freely on that date, why
> its end of life is being declared, and what this means to current users (short
> answer: nothing), please see the full announcement:
> 
> http://www.fourmilab.ch/speakfree/eol/
> 
> Tomorrow, August 1st, 2003, a banner will be added to all of the principal
> Speak Freely pages on the www.fourmilab.ch site pointing to this document. I'm
> pre-announcing it to the mailing list and forum to provide a heads up before
> the general public sees the announcement.
> 
> I shall not debate this decision, the reasons for which are completely spelled
> out in the document cited above.
> 
> 
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