quote:
Originally posted by Syco
Why is there a server "middleman"? I assume it's to help facilitate the transfer of sounds with people that have crappy connections, would I be correct?
True. A lot of people are behind routers or firewalls these days, a direct file transfer between the two contacts is not possible a lot of the time. It is not that much crappy or slow connections, but the complexity of opening up a port to allow direct connections.
However, Messenger has voiceclips now. They are intended to send audio from a microphone, but Plus! could use the same method to pipe its own sounds through there. With the added value of people who don't use Plus! would be able to hear the sounds too. AFAIK voiceclips are sent through a server "middleman" too, but Microsoft's servers are distributed throughout the world and probably more stable than Plus!' own servers which are located in a single place. Although Microsoft might not be too happy if Plus! increased the usage of voiceclips (and thus their bandwidth) in a major way
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