Port 80 is not good enough for Web 2.0 and neither is port 443. Why am I saying this? Well we had a h*ck of a time getting iChat to work between Torino and Vancouver for our Coffee with Ross Videoconference with Torino on Friday. Despite our best efforts (and several dry runs) we didn't get iChat AV working until the event was almost over.

Yes it's good to close down a corporate network but you need to have spots for people with some flexibility because :

  • There are computers that actually work well and aren't bogged down by viruses and spyware. Pretty much any computer that doesn't run Windows (unless you are lucky to have it maintained by a flexible and vigilant IT department).
  • There are a whole suite of two way web/conversational web/Web 2.0 tools out there (Skype, iChat, etc) that require ports other than port 80 and 443 to be open. I dare say that in the future, most people will be using these tools rather than situation of today where only early adopters use them.

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