Skype Upstream Usage

[808rob]

I am curious about Skype's upstream usage. RoadRunner consistently gives me speeds of 10Mbps down and 1Mbps up. However when my sister fires up Skype for a video chat the network upstream drops to 0.5Mbps. Is Skype really eating half the bandwidth? It has only been an issue lately since whenever I hear Skype ringing my online game latency spikes moments later

 

[eibgrad]

Not sure this totally explains it, but Skype turns anyone behind a NAT router into a potential supernode. What that means is that your network connection may be used by Skype as a relay for other users. Skype claims this is only used for control messages, and only for a single user, so the hit should be minimal, but other ppl who’ve monitored Skype traffic claim otherwise.

One way to protect yourself from becoming a supernode is to open and forward the Skype incoming port (see Tools->Options->Advanced->Connection, and untick the “use port 80/443...” option, you can change the default incoming port if you like). Or just use UPnP if your router has this feature enabled. I've also seen ppl disable supernode using the registry. You can search for more information via Google if interested.

One of the side benefits of opening the Skype port is usually better sound quality.

I would at least try it and see what happens.

 

[808rob]

Thanks for the tip eibgrad, I will definitely try that out and see what the network traffic looks like afterwards

 

[808rob]

Best answer selected by 808rob.