Some Skypers get reconnected, but most still offline

Some users, albeit far from a majority, are happily reporting they're now able to successfully reconnect to Skype following a problem which earlier this week floored the VoIP service. The company is keen to stress that their servers didn't crash, and that there's no security issue, just an error in their client software which …

[Michael]

What outage?

Umm what outage? I've been on all day with no problems with calls or chats. Traditional telcos can laugh all they want, I've had bigger problems with BT than I have with skype.

[Anonymous Coward]

What a bunch of fibbers!

Why am I thinking the "client software" line is a bit of a fib? I've got two machines that've sat through the whole thing, one with their very latest updated software that they're sending through the inbuilt auto update feature, and one that's a build from about a month ago, and they're both totally random in their connectedness.

Ah well, at least the US based Skype In number I have is still working and camping through to my mobile properly. I even somehow managed to maintain a call from Skype to a US landline last night, while the client claimed for 80% of the call that it wasn't connected..

[Matt]

Michael

You seem to be in the minority. I and my network of contacts have only had sporadic access to Skype today.

While I'm no fan of BT I've never been without the ability to call for two days. Without voice-mail, yes, with caller display which never worked, yes, but never without the ability to make calls for more than an hour.

[Anonymous Coward]

Big boy toys

Skype is cool and a neat toy but everyone must realize that they are not even in the same league with the big telcos. It's going to take decades before little firms like Skype can play with the big boys.

[Francis]

Well at least you have a choice with Skype

As I noted at my blog yesterday (http://www.di2.nu/200708/16.htm ), if you're with France Telecom and your land line goes dead then you have to call them from a LAND LINE to report the problem. At least with Skype you can use Google talk or MS messenger instead.

[Kenny Millar]

This outage!

Michael, quit skype and re-start it, now you'll see what outage we are on about!

[Mark]

Just goes to show centralized systems will break down

centralized systems will never work especially using proprietary protocols, People should be using SIP and clients such as gizmo and others

[Jeremy]

Sporadic...

...is the right word. I too doubt a problem in the client software. Uunless some disgruntled former employee did this:

If (Date() >= 16-Aug-2007) Then

Laugh(LAUGH_MODE_MANIC_CACKLE)

Else

Connect()

End If

that might explain it. Otherwise Skype have some serious grovelling and explaining. And yes, I'm a paying customer so I do have a right to complain. They do quite well out of me.

[Rob]

Linux Client fine

I have found today that my Linux client is fine but Windows Client is having the issue. Unfortunately my contacts use Windows Clients so I have been seeing them come on line for couple of min then drop off again.

Amazing it is taking so long to resolve!

[Tom]

Who cares?

I use Skype as a local phone number for a satellite office. I don't care the network went down. I can still do business with cell phones or landlines. I wouldn't use VOIP as a primary phone - yet. As far as telecommunications in general, I see the future as VOIP over wi-fi or wimax. When I can use a cell phone or other wireless device to access any other phone without paying the exorbitant fees that telcos traditionally like to charge, I will switch completely. Peer to peer just makes sense when you consider the fact that telcos have always used monopoly power to financially abuse customers. This outage by Skype is a minor glitch on the way to the future. Not nearly as catastrophic as a space ship blowing up, but something repairable. Telecommunications are a utility and should be owned by the public, not abusive private sectors. Who cares that the service is out for a few days?

[Edward Pearson]

Uhhh...

I don't know the specifics but, are Inter-Skype calls working? and ones using SkypeOut and SkypeIn not?

If that is the case then it seems to me, the problem doesn't lie in the Client, it would a problem somewhere on the bridge from Skype to the Telco networks.

[Anonymous Coward]

Linux client fine, Windows client problems?

Linux client skips in and out just like any other.

[Steve]

France Telecom

You can call them from any line, it's just the 1013 that only works from a fixed line. From a cellphone it is 0800 xx 1013, where xx is your department.

They're still much more reliable than jokers like Free...!

[John Latham]

Time to try the competition

Skype has been the primary telephony/text chat app in our internationally-distributed team for the past year or so.

The last couple of days have been quiet, what with no Skype connectivity, but work continued. We just went more asynchronous, using issue trackers, wikis, and (FSM forbid) e-mail. I haven't needed to resort to landlines just yet.

But with a few minutes of the quiet time that the Skype outage gave me I checked out SightSpeed and the Gizmo Project.

Sightspeed does nice multiway video-chat, but since we all know what each other look like, we gave up on webcams last year (now we can conference call naked, if the want arises). The Sightspeed call quality is also top notch, but the text chat is very basic.

Gizmo Project looks like a real contender though. It mined all my Outlook contacts, and found the couple of people I knew who already had accounts. Very Skype-like interface, and seems to match up feature-wise, though I'm too lazy to do a feature-by-feature comparison.

Even if I go back to Skype, at least I know the alternatives are good.

John

[OffBeatMammal]

Client s/w easier to fix... but firmware?

As one of the brave few using the SMC WiFi handset (or is it Belkin. They look the same, I have both and forget which is which!) will this software update mean I've got to wait 6 months for a firmware upgrade so I can get reconnected?!

[Anonymous Coward]

Skype is still better than telcos...even if it is down

I have used the last 48 hours to get lots of things done I don't normally through the work day. Working from home, I went into the office, had some good meetings and was able to make some real progress on things that had been stalled for months, all thanks to Skype being down.

I was one of the early beta users thanks to colleagues in Germany in early 04. I hate the local telcos and it would take Skype treating me like a useless piece of %^&$ for 20 years before I will go back to the idiots wihin the massive telcos, no matter if it is BT, ATT, VZ, or whomever. The WHOLE reason I moved to skype was to get away from the morons at the telcos. So how did the outage effect me? Simple. I got in the car, went into the office, talked on a mobile for a confernece call, and SMS'ed my wife a few times. No big deal.

I cannot justify paying 10-20 times more for half the quality of service with half the features using completely old technology. This is what telcos must ultimately face up to.

[Anonymous Coward]

If only Skype could be reliable, like the good old telcos....

"to be taken seriously in the industry" -- I do hope that was intended as risible irony.

Of course if this is Skype's first outage since 2003, they're doing better than BT:

http://www.cableforum.co.uk/board/63/24059-bt-outage-affects-500-000-plus.html

or, if you're in the States, than Verizon

http://blog.tomevslin.com/2005/07/verizon_outage.html

or Cingular

http://www.phonescoop.com/news/item.php?n=683

The Register is of course obliged to be nasty to everyone, but let's spread credit around where it's due, shall we?

[Nick]

Only my Windoze client borked.

I've been skyping perfectly well from both my Linux and WinMobile client, but my XP client won't connect. And I've not deployed the very latest patches yet on that box, so I'm not 100% sure we can blame Patch Tuesday 'entirely'. But what is causing it, I don't know. Interestingly enough, skype-out seems a lot more stable at the minute, maybe because there's a lot less traffic flowing out of their gateways.

[Mark Daniels]

VOIP SKYPE OUTAGE

I was interested in the 'traditional Networks / told you so' comment.

I spend 80% of my time away from home, often away from the UK, in hotels, airports and, even every and then, actualy at work.!!

Hotels charge huge amounts of money for 'phone calls, mobile romaing charges are often very high too, even with a massive corporate discount.

BUt, find a hotel that throws in some broadband [I am in the Hilton in Algiers right now, using free broadband] and a voip client is perfect.

The tradtional networks have a small point, but, in reality, most ppl have more than one voip client [ I have four : skype, sipgate, voipstunt and oovoo] so the fact one of them drops off every now and then, is not, despite the claims of some, then of the world....... no porn in the hotel..... THAT is the end of the world.!!!

[Rhys Briffett]

Pfft!

I've had my TalkTalk line go down more than Skype. Been without phone and internet for about a week!

[Anonymous Coward]

From bugtraq:

On SecurityLab.ru forum an exploit code was published by an anonymous user.

Reportedly it must have caused Skype massive disconnections today.

The PoC uses standard Skype client to call to a specific number. This call causes denial of service of current Skype server and forces Skype to reconnect to another server. The new server also "freezes" and so on ... the entire network.

[Michael]

A windoze issue?

Afraid I missed most of the replies to my post having skipped out of work early for a few pints. Seems like it was a windows problem, I had been logging in and out of skype throughout the day as I had to upgrade my machine and I had no problems logging back in.

I never tried to use the windows client on Friday but it was fine on Saturday for me. I assume the problem is fixed? Again all my contacts are online and I've no issue with phoning anyone

[Anonymous Coward]

Mac client fine too..

I'd say the problem is only with Windows... Funny that ;)

As it seem Linux and Mac ones work just fine!