How Skype gets through firewalls, and I wish iChat did the same

Can't remember where I first stumbled upon this article, but it is a very interesting read on how Skype punches holes in firewalls and makes video/audio chat work for the user anyway it can.

At work, I have to use Skype on OS X if I want to get a video chat going with someone outside the network, it's the only thing that just works. iChat only uses SIP, and it is a shame it does because I would love to have it's H.264 encoded video all the time instead of Skype's barely YouTube quality. The network admins are not allowing the SIP ports out.

I actually filed a bug with Apple (which requires a freee Apple Developer Connection account) to ask for a feature request to work like Skype when punching holes in firewalls.

It may not matter all that much if iChat gets the functionality though, because since Adium hit 1.0 I have swithed over to it exclusively for all instant messaging. One app and I put the multitude of IM accounts in and it works great. I must confess too, the fact that I can change over the icon to be a duck dressed up like Batman, that flaps the cap when I get an IM, priceless.