Proxy servers for Skype for Business Online

Important

Skype for Business Online operated by 21Vianet in China will be retired on October 1, 2023. If you haven't upgraded your Skype for Business Online users yet, they will be automatically scheduled for an assisted upgrade. If you want to upgrade your organization to Teams yourself, we strongly recommend that you begin planning your upgrade path today. Remember that a successful upgrade aligns technical and user readiness, so be sure to leverage our upgrade guidance as you navigate your journey to Teams.

Skype for Business Online, excluding the service operated by 21Vianet in China, was retired on July 31, 2021.

This article provides guidance about using a proxy server with Skype for Business.

When it comes to Skype for Business traffic over proxies, Microsoft recommends bypassing proxies. Proxies don't make Skype for Business more secure because the traffic is already encrypted.

And having a proxy can cause issues. Performance-related problems can be introduced to the environment through latency and packet loss. Issues such as these will result in a negative experience in such Teams or Skype for Business scenarios as audio and video, where real-time streams are essential.

If you need to use a proxy server

Some organizations have no option to bypass a proxy for Skype for Business traffic. If that's the case for you, the problems mentioned above need to be kept in mind.

Microsoft also strongly recommends:

Following this guidance should minimize potential problems.

Optimizing your network for Skype for Business Online