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End Of the Line for SpeakFreely: NATed to Death

Posted by ryuzaki0 on from the calling-it-quits dept.

Arun writes "John Walker (of AutoDesk and Fourmilab fame), primary author of SpeakFreely, has decided to EOL the program (a pioneering network telephony effort), come January 15th, 2004. He cites difficulty in maintaining a decade-old code base, lack of appropriate developer support and a fundamental change in the peer-to-peer nature of the Internet upon which SF is dependent as motivating factors behind his decision. While the last release of the program will continue to be available from SourceForge, the main web site, mailing list, and web forum will be shut down on the aforementioned date." He's got some good points too, like how once IPv6 is more common, most users probably won't go back to one address per machine. I know I enjoy the added security of a NATed firewall, and without a really good reason, I won't be quick to give it up.

4 of 339 comments (clear)

  1. Hrml by Nuclear+Elephant · · Score: 2, Funny

    Can you hear me now? Hello? Hello?

  2. NAT to death. by pr0ntab · · Score: 5, Funny

    192.168.0.5/16!

    No...

    172.18.1.3/12!

    No, please, stop

    10.255.255.255/8!

    AAAAAHHAHAHRRRGGNO CARRIER

    --
    Fuck Beta. Fuck Dice
  3. NAT destroying the Internet by anti-NAT · · Score: 3, Funny

    Why do people just love NAT ?

    Is it a "superiority complex" thing ?

    "Ha ha ha, I'm better than the hackers, my addresses are hidden".

    or

    "Hee hee, my ISP doesn't realise I'm connecting more than one PC" BONK. Yes they do.

    Its a pitty these NATters don't realise

    • NAT doesn't protect you from email payload viruses.
    • NAT doesn't protect you from spy where. You downloaded that when you downloaded the free P2P software. Once inside your NAT box, it can establish more outgoing TCP connections, and download what ever it likes.
    • TCP connections are full duplex - data (innocent or malicious) can be downloaded via a TCP connection initiated in the outgoing direction. That is how the WWW works !

    Its just breaking the Internet, killing off useful peer to peer applications like speakeasy.

    Do people like screwing around with their NAT box configuration everytime they add a new P2P application ? (dumb question on slashdot I suppose).

    For those that think it is wonderful, spend some time reading and understanding this RFC

    RFC 2993 - Architectural Implications of NAT

    Until that point, you don't have an informed opinion about NAT, so you shouldn't express it.

    --
    The Internet's nature is peer to peer - 20050301_cs_profs.pdf
  4. Re:Yeah that's right, SF and NAT don't work togeth by D4MO · · Score: 2, Funny

    Wierd, I keep getting sitefinder...

    --

    Rocket science is easy. Neurosurgery, now *that's* difficult.