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fsflover

One can also forbid Internet or just computers, because one can do a lot of harm with them...

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Enterprise blocking of IP ports has caused quite a mess already. Let's not allow them to make it an even bigger mess.

> Enterprise blocking of IP ports has caused quite a mess already.

Which mess did it cause?

The mess that requires legitimate services to pierce through firewalls.

https://www.tldp.org/HOWTO/Firewall-Piercing/x58.html

It’s also part of why so many things that’d be better on TCP sockets end up being implemented on top of HTTP... and then actually see adoption in that form. A combo of JS limitations and firewalls aggressively blocking everything that’s not HTTP.

The mess that has made any new protocol look like HTTP for the last 15-20 years.

Considering SSH is forbidden in most enterprise networks I've seen, your attitude is clearly in the minority.

Enterprise-IT people tend to shutdown first and ask questions later, to cover their ass (and in their shoes I'd probably do the same). If it becomes trivial to torrent via mainstream browsers, I expect they will lock down whichever feature is responsible or apply massive pressure on vendors to remove the feature.

The only problem I see here would be created by themselves. The price they pay for postponing questions is losing WebRTC and those "serious applications" in the meantime.

> Considering SSH is forbidden in most enterprise networks I've seen, your attitude is clearly in the minority.

You can't really forbid SSH (on paper only you can) since you can create SSH tunnels via virtually any port.

Of course, but they still make an effort (and a policy that will be applied to you if found out). They have to, it's their responsibility. If suddenly half the network is saturated by people using browsers to torrent the latest movies, you can bet that the answer won't be "we need a bigger pipe"...

The enterprise networks I’ve been on don’t give endpoints direct internet access. You can only access the web through an authenticated proxy. This forbids SSH, unless you set up additional infrastructure to tunnel it in HTTP.

Removing the feature seems pretty unlikely, since most web-based video conferencing products rely on WebRTC. In today's remote work world, that would be quite the throwing of the baby out with the bathwater.

Enterprise IT people here. We cover our ass in true enterprise style by consuming website filter lists from a provider and MitM TLS. Doesn't matter if they use WebRTC or HTTP, as long as the website is in the correct categories.

Worst case we could disallow WebRTC via DPI and whitelist it for category conferencing.

I get the argument about blaming tools, but there's precedent here that suggests a ban could happen. Apple bans torrent-related applications from their app store despite the protocol ostensibly having nothing to do with piracy.

I think that's less likely to happen with WebRTC. But for workplaces that don't otherwise use it? Maybe.

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