San Jose State University has reconsidered a plan to ban Skype (The Chronicle, September 22) after eBay—which owns the popular Internet-based telephone service—convinced campus officials that the program need not be a threat to network security.
San Jose State’s technology officials had worried that, by turning users’ computers into temporary way stations for phone calls, Skype was opening up exploitable security holes on the campus network. But students and professors said the software was too valuable to be outlawed, and the university eventually agreed to meet with eBay representatives to work out a solution.
At the meeting, eBay officials suggested that San Jose State install a proxy server that would let students use Skype without endangering the network. According to MarketWatch, that recommendation was enough to assuage administrators. A couple of other California institutions still prohibit Skype, at least for the time being. —Brock Read
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