SFA pre-purchase questions about firewalls and billing

[sproket45]

Hi,

I am running Asterisk 1.4.28 on CentOS and am looking to add Skype For Asterisk.

First, I understand I still need to pay for Skype Out and Skype In minutes, but want to confirm that Skype to Skype calls are completely free (Asterisk <-> Skype Users) along with the Skype account I need to create under the Business Control Panel (sounds like BCP is totally free).

Next, I want to confirm what ports are required to be open in the firewall and how well NAT is supported.

My asterisk server is behind a NAT firewall and we have fairly tight security rules. I have read the Skype pages on firewalls and opening all outbound TCP connections is not possible. Next they mention you can open port 443 and 80 to allow the traffic.

Are TCP port 80 and 443 outbound all it requires for both inbound and outbound calls, the call setup and audio stream? Sounds too good to be true but I do understand that the normal Skype client for windows is really good at getting through firewalls and NAT.


I just want to confirm all of this before I go and buy licenses.


Thanks for your input, I'm very excited about Skype for Asterisk!

Steve

[sproket45]

I went ahead and purchased some SFA licenses and gave it a shot.

Here are my results as I'm sure there are others wondering the same thing.

1. Skype to Skype calls are completely free (i.e. SFA call to OR from a normal skype user). You only need to pay for skype-in or skype-out (if you wish to use those features).

2. I had our firewall admin open TCP 80 and TCP 443 outbound to the internet. I set disable_tcpauto=yes and disable_udp=yes in my chan_skype.conf. It works like a charm. Although I'd like the reduced IP overhead of using UDP, it seems to be working just fine this way.


The most important part is to create your Skype accounts correctly. The Skype documentation is pretty weak in this area.

1. The Skype account you use to login / create your BCP is NOT a business account. You can't use it with SFA.

2. To create a business account, do this in the BCP by typing in a username, password, email address. On my first try I used the BCP and entered an email address. This seems to create a personal account not a business account.


Cheers,

Steve