Hi,

I'm wondering about connection attempts by skype, which seems to ignore the socks settings I configured. As my PC is behind a restrictive firewall, I would like skype not to make any network connections beside through the SOCKS proxy on localhost, which is tunneling to a 'remote host' with full internet connectivity. The firewall only allows ftp:, http: and https: excluding the skype.com domain and IPs.

So this is what I did so far, everything on host 'me':

- install skype (alpha version 1.4.0.64)
- ssh -D 2500 -N remote.host &
- rm -fr ~/.Skype
- skype&
- Accept license agreement
- Ctrl+O (options)
- Connections: SOCKS proxy, localhost, 2500
- Ctrl+Q (quit)
- skype&

Even before accepting the license agreement, I see connection attemts like:

tcp 0 1 me:59203 sss1.skype.net:33033 SYN_SENT

A short time (10 s) after starting skype the second time without actually logging in, I see connection attempts to port 33033 on several hosts, like

tcp 0 1 me:33376 212.72.49.143:33033 SYN_SENT
tcp 0 1 me:45252 194.165.188.82:33033 SYN_SENT
tcp 0 1 me:36817 193.88.6.19:33033 SYN_SENT
tcp 0 1 me:58976 66.235.181.9:33033 SYN_SENT
tcp 0 1 me:53907 sss1.skype.net:33033 SYN_SENT

which stay in state "SYN SENT".

Signing in the first time fails, and results in more connection attempts to port 33033 on different hosts. Only the second logon is successfull, but now I see connection to other ports:

tcp 0 1 me:43625 212.72.49.131:www SYN_SENT
tcp 0 1 me:48611 130.117.72.81:www SYN_SENT

beside the connection to the local SOCKS proxy:

tcp 0 0 localhost:46693 localhost:2500 TIME_WAIT
tcp 0 0 localhost:46692 localhost:2500 TIME_WAIT
tcp 0 0 localhost:2500 localhost:53707 VERBUNDEN

How can I get rid of these unwanted connections?

Does it make sense to deactivate the "check for updates on startup" and to uncheck the "send unanswered calls to voice mail" option?

Thanks in advance,

burnit