From theom+news@chiark.greenend.org.uk Sun May 23 20:07:01 2010 Path: ewrotcd!not-for-mail From: Theo Markettos Newsgroups: uk.telecom.mobile Subject: Three's Skype system revealed, and how to use unsupported phones Date: 07 May 2010 23:11:58 +0100 (BST) Organization: University of Cambridge, England Lines: 237 Message-ID: <6cn*lqs+s@news.chiark.greenend.org.uk> NNTP-Posting-Host: chiark.greenend.org.uk X-Trace: chiark.greenend.org.uk 1273270320 3621 212.13.197.229 (7 May 2010 22:12:00 GMT) X-Complaints-To: usenet@chiark.greenend.org.uk NNTP-Posting-Date: Fri, 7 May 2010 22:12:00 +0000 (UTC) X-References: <5cn*6Wf+s@news.chiark.greenend.org.uk> <5cn*X8k+s@news.chiark.greenend.org.uk> <6cn*SCr+s@news.chiark.greenend.org.uk> User-Agent: tin/1.9.3-20080506 ("Dalintober") (UNIX) (Linux/2.6.26-2-686-bigmem (i686)) Originator: theom@chiark.greenend.org.uk ([212.13.197.229]) Xref: news.chiark.greenend.org.uk uk.telecom.mobile:342349 In the "Skype to SIP on non-Skypephones" thread (message ID <6cn*SCr+s@news.chiark.greenend.org.uk>) I was musing about how Three's Skypephone system works. I've just been doing some digging, and can reveal how I think it can be made to work for phones that Three don't support. Please note that this is completely untested, but if you want to hear of my discoveries, read on... By asking for a download SMS, I found Three's internal site hosting their Skype clients: http://ghp.three.co.uk/email/skype/home (that's in Three's walled garden, so only accessible from the three.co.uk APN) You have to play some user agent games, but the client offered when I fake the N95 is at: http://download.three.co.uk/un/811/001/skype/simonly/Skype_2_0_39_SO_Signed.sisx (also in the walled garden) Unfortunately I can't make it offer a client when pretending to be an HTC Hero. It looks like this is only available when bought with phones from Three, which is rather disappointing. The N95 client appears to be written by iSkoot, who also do iSkoot for Skype: http://www.iskoot.com/products/skype and indeed, if you download iSkoot for Skype from their website saying you have an N95 the contents of the SIS file are pretty much identical to the Three client. This confirms it: http://www.iskoot.com/blog/2009/01/02/ringing-and-beyond-in-the-new-year I also discover the backend to Three's Skype backend is provided by iSkoot's KalaidaVoice: http://www.iskoot.com/products/kalaida iSkoot says their client works on these phones, which is a much wider list than Three's: http://www.iskoot.com/products/skype/devices ...notably lots of Windows Mobile phones, and some early smartphones (Nokia 6680), but I don't spot any Android phones there. But they have a user manual for iSkoot in the T-Mobile G1. A bit more digging suggests this has been withdrawn, but you can download it here: http://dumpytips.blogspot.com/2009/01/iskoot-or-skype-on-g1.html or in this attachment: http://forum.xda-developers.com/showthread.php?t=442460 If I unzip the .apk I find there's a configuration file res/raw/startup.properties with: defaultSkypeHost=http://gw1.iskoot.com backupHost=isk-bos-app2.iskoot.com baseUrl=isk-bos-app2.iskoot.com I assume there's some kind of web service on gw1.iskoot.com which is used as the signalling channel, and perhaps to indicate the number to call to pass the voice traffic. The Symbian iSkoot client also has networks.txt (quoted below) that gives some access points for iSkoot, including those on various Three networks worldwide. Indeed, if I use a web browser to hit http://gw1.iskoot.com/ from the internet and http://mobile.three.co.uk/948 while connected to APN three.co.uk I get the same result - an HTTP return of:

It works!

Interestingly, the settings below refer to an APN of '3', which I hadn't heard of before. I can indeed connect to that APN and browse to Planet3 etc as usual. I'm not sure if APN '3' and APN 'three.co.uk' are synonymous or if they behave differently. So, if anyone wants to try Three UK Skype on Android, try grabbing the G1 client and setting: defaultSkypeHost=http://mobile.three.co.uk/948 (and perhaps set backupHost and baseUrl to the same, or delete them, or something) From the iSkoot forum http://forum.iskoot.com/ it looks like iSkoot comes in several platforms: Android (G1 only) Windows Mobile BlackBerry UIQ3 Motorola (RAZR v3 only) Nokia S60 v2 (6600, 6680, 6682 only) Nokia S60 v3 Treo So I'd be very interested if anyone with one of these platforms manages to tweak the iSkoot client to use the Three settings. According to the forum, someone has installed the Android version on a Motorola Droid (with a problem), so even iSkoot's list probably isn't exhaustive. Feedback on the forum regarding the iSkoot client isn't all positive (eg the silent chat alerts problem is mentioned), but worth a go. Now, I wonder if the G1 client can be persuaded to install on the Android SDK... Theo Here's the full list of network settings: [networks] net1 = skype ;net2 = gtalk [skype] ;provider1 = uk ;provider2 = Ireland ;provider3 = Italy ;provider4 = Sweden ;provider5 = Denmark ;provider6 = Australia ;provider7 = Austria ;Provider8 = bosapp2 ;provider9 = coretest1 ;Provider10 = bosapp3 provider11 = gw1 ;provider12 = roshapp1 ;provider13 = wins ;provider14 = dev ;provider15 = bladedev4 [gw1] BASEURL=http://gw1.iskoot.com LANGUAGE=0 country=universal apn=__DEFAULT__ label=gw1 [roshapp1] BASEURL=http://isk-rosh-app1.iskoot.com LANGUAGE=0 country=universal apn=__DEFAULT__ label=rosh-app1 [bladedev4] BASEURL=http://212.199.98.204 LANGUAGE=0 country=universal apn=__DEFAULT__ label=bladedev4 [dev] BASEURL=http://dev.iskoot.com LANGUAGE=0 country = usa apn=__DEFAULT__ label=dev.iskoot.com [bosapp2] BASEURL=http://isk-bos-app2.iskoot.com LANGUAGE=0 apn=__DEFAULT__ country=universal label=emulator [bosapp3] BASEURL=http://isk-bos-app3.iskoot.com LANGUAGE=0 APN=__DEFAULT__ country=usa label=bos-app3 [wins] BASEURL=http://isk-bos-app1.iskoot.com LANGUAGE=0 APN=winsock country=universal label=emulator [coretest1] BASEURL=http://isk-core-test1.iskoot.com LANGUAGE=0 country = usa apn=__DEFAULT__ label=core-test1 [uk] BASEURL=http://mobile.three.co.uk/948 LANGUAGE=0 APN=3 country=uk label=3 UK [Ireland] BASEURL=http://mobile.3ireland.ie/948 LANGUAGE=0 APN=3 country=ireland label=3 Ireland [Italy] BASEURL=http://skype.tre.it LANGUAGE=4 APN=3 country=italy label=3 Italia [sweden] BASEURL=http://mobil.tre.se/skypecs LANGUAGE=5 APN=[apnlist] country=sweden label=3 Sverige [denmark] BASEURL=http://mobil.3.dk/skypecs LANGUAGE=1 APN=[apnlist] country=denmark label=3 Danmark [australia] BASEURL=http://three.net.au/skype LANGUAGE=0 APN=Planet 3 country=australia label=3 Australia [austria] BASEURL=http://msite.drei.at/skype LANGUAGE=2 APN=Planet3 country=austria label=3 Austria [apnlist] apn1=3 apn2=Tre [gtalk] provider1 = dev10