João Brogueira writes:

On 1 June 2004, Jean Mercier posted an article on SkypeJournal making an analysis of how many users are online at a certain our within a 24 hours period. This raises the question of how to register the values without being waked up during all night.

The same Jean Mercier as per request of Bill Campbell, of SkypeJournal, shows how to make a video to register the Skype window and the number of users online.

I was surfing the Web today and I found this very interesting post claiming to have miniSkype, a small program that can not only register these values but also export them directly to a database for later analysis.

In short:

1. Jirong Zhou posted a test program on his blog, likely written by others.
2. It logs in to the Skype network, without Skype.
3. It gets data from the Skype network, like the number of people online.

Let me describe the screenshot for you...

It is a Windows XP desktop and three windows are open.

Two stacked on the left are titled "miniSkype v0.0.0.01". They each have a Log In/Out dialog panel on the left, showing "shantou001" logged in with a five character password and a "Log Out" button. To the right of the dialog panel is a text box showing a log of miniSkype's activity.

The first window's log shows:

Login
listen on random port
connecting SkypeNet ...
SkypeNet connected

The status bar shows a "1", "3", "login success", and "305271 Online".

The second window's log shows:

Login
listen on random port
connecting SkypeNet ...
SkypeNet connected
Logout
SkypeNet not connected
Login
listen on random port
connecting SkypeNet ...

and then scrolls out of sight.

The second status bar is the same as the first except that the number of people online is 3047812.

The third window is an application, what appears to be a utility from Gunagzhou's http://www.sky.net.cn/, makers of personal firewall software. It shows open applications and their network connections. One of the instances of MiniSkype.exe (running on drive E:) is shown with both a TCP connection (open on port 1389?) and a UDP connection.

Accessing the Skype Cloud Without Skype?

So does this mean...

• Skype's access to the cloud can be reverse engineered? If so, we can write applications that can write and read to the cloud from servers or clients. So if Skype doesn't write a version for your platform (let's say the PalmOS, for example) you might write your own.
• Cloud data is posted in the clear? While conversations are encrypted, it isn't clear that profile data and presence status is. And, I'm assuming that MiniSkype didn't encrypt the login process beyond common https.
• The MiniSkype client successfully logged in through Skype's own admin servers? If so, can Skype be selective about which clients have access? Should Skype publish a Terms Of Service about touching the cloud? In other words, how should Skype sanction access to the cloud?
• Having accessed the cloud, what other data from the cloud is available? Everything described in the Skype APIs? More?
• Can MiniSkype ask questions about other people, the way the Skype client can see buddy list presence and profile information?
• Is this intensely cool? Widely important? Or dangerous?