DISQUS

Dirk's Metric/k · 2 years ago

Skype Network Problems...

Since this morning, I’m experiencing some severe Skype network problems. The client disconnects regularly, needs about 5 minutes to reconnect and drops the connection quite soon again (about a minute later). Likewise, the number of client that ar...

ramonchis · 2 years ago

What's your current location? UK seems to be partially cut off Skype.

David · 2 years ago

I'm in London, UK. Also friends in South Korea and Japan can't logon.

Jason · 2 years ago

I'm in Hk and it is down too

David · 2 years ago

Seems to be down worldwide although it intermittently logs me on for a few minutes but fails to send/receive messages. The engineers at Skype must be having a really bad day!

Beat Döbeli Honegger · 2 years ago

Your second link to a theory for the outage is a blog post from September 2004 ;-)

David · 2 years ago

Whooops... that'll teach me for posting before reading properly :) Thanks!

John · 2 years ago

I am still online in Denmark. Only 594.146 users online and still going down. I will be cut off everytime now, I think.

David · 2 years ago

Update from Skype:

"UPDATED 14:02 GMT: Some of you may be having problems logging in to Skype. Our engineering team has determined that it’s a software issue. We expect this to be resolved within 12 to 24 hours.

Yikes - up to 24 hours downtime!

Anita · 2 years ago

I'm in Belgium and Skype has been down since the start of the day today. Frustrating! I've quit the application till tonight (fingers crossed, it'll be up and running by then) because it is annoying, seeing it try to connect all day.

jan geirnaert | tropicaljantie · 2 years ago

also in malaysia kuala lumpur. i wonder what caused this.

Dawn · 2 years ago

The REALLY bad thing is that my Skype-In line is down and there is no way to forward it to my regular line since Skype is down. Wish I could do that from my login at skype.com! All in all, it's been a great service. Now I know that I need alternatives!

Tailspin · 2 years ago

Down here in San Diego . . .

Hans · 2 years ago

I'm in Germany.
Skype is down since this morning.
Is it related to the yesterday's planned mainenance?

David · 2 years ago

Interesting point Hans... must have been a pretty big mess up to cause such widespread disruption. I guess with such a complex system you can never be sure of the knock on effect of any changes made to the network.

Does anyone know of any alternatives which offer similar functionality and cross-platform compatibility? I've not heard of any which can make the skype-in/out type calls.

Alex · 2 years ago

Skype has been up and down (more often down than up) since early in the morning here in Brazil. I'm glad to know it's not just me so I cam give up troubleshooting my settings.

Kersplat · 2 years ago

what a mess .. I all but forgot how terrible MSN is; but at least it's up

Dawn · 2 years ago

It would be nice if they put a notice on skype.com letting people know instead of hiding it. I would have preferred being able to get the info directly from them instead of googling for info on it. I DO REALLY appreciate your posting on this. I would be beating my head against some hard product somewhere if it weren't for you! Thanks!

Darius · 2 years ago

And i'm like an idiot spent 3 or 4 hours trying to make skype to work.i did everything possible:antivirus scan,registry scan,antispyware scan,checked firewall,turned my wirelees router inside out,downloaded all possible updates,did system restore,and that bloody thing still does not connect.And only when i was reading an article about skype in wikipedia i found this:16/08/2007 worldwide skype outage.I guess without seeing it i'd throw my laptop through the window.

Yammy · 2 years ago

Down here in the Tampa /Orlando area too. Stinks!

Dirtyrottensoandso · 2 years ago

Down in TX too... Skype is my only voice provider. Hope the phones come back on soon.

Darius · 2 years ago

My brother just sent me sms from Lithuania.No Skype there.

Lynn · 2 years ago

Skype has a message on their site:
"UPDATED 16 August, 2007 14:02 GMT: Some of you may be having problems logging in to Skype. Our engineering team has determined that it’s a software issue. We expect this to be resolved within 12 to 24 hours. Meanwhile, you can simply leave your Skype client running and as soon as the issue is resolved, you will be logged in. We apologize for the inconvenience."
I'm in Canada and discovered the problem at 10:00 a.m. Eastern Time. Let's hope they get this fixed soon... My best to the engineers.

Jonathan · 2 years ago

One possible alternative to skype is is gizmoproject, http://gizmoproject.com. It seems to be pretty similar to skype, except that it supports SIP calls. This allows it to be integrated with office VOIP PBXes (like Asterisk).

Darius · 2 years ago

Some of you?I'd say all of you.

chris · 2 years ago

Skype is down in US and also Argentina so I guess world wide...Anyone tried to contact Skype? Had no success even submitting a question via their site? Any info at all out there as to what is going on and how long it will be down?

jakahia · 2 years ago

Skype has been sucking out lately!!! The connection quality and chatter has dirt quality!!

jeff · 2 years ago

I need Sype or else i will shoot this cute kitten! jk

Paul · 2 years ago

UK - Still down. Grandfather in Australia - no skype there.
Mind you, Skype is an annogram of "Pesky" ;)

Pablo · 2 years ago

In response to the question of liability - From Skype's Terms of Service:

Skype’s liability to you
Limitation of liability. In the event of Skype being in breach of any of its obligations towards you under these Terms of Service, Skype will accept liability to pay damages only to the extent laid below:
Skype can only be held liable for direct damages resulting from an attributable failure to perform its obligations under these Terms of Service. Direct damages in this respect exclusively mean all reasonable costs incurred by you in order to (i) have Skype perform its obligations under the Terms of Service or (ii) to prevent or limit such costs.
To the maximum extent permitted by applicable law, Skype shall not be liable for any indirect, special, incidental or consequential damages whatsoever (including but not limited to, damages for loss of profits or confidential or other information, for business interruption, for loss of privacy arising out of or in any way related to the use of or inability to use the Skype products, even if Skype has been advised of the possibility of such damages.
The direct damages as meant in this article shall be limited to the amount actually paid by you for the Skype services during the year in which such damages occur. In no event, however, shall the total compensation for any direct damages exceed 5,000 Euro, unless the loss is due to Skype’s willful default or gross negligence.

JMD · 2 years ago

Down here in Montréal, Québec, Canada
10:45 GMT-5
;-(

Benny · 2 years ago

Skype is also down in Canada

rdes · 2 years ago

This is an absolute nightmare for those of us who depend on Skype daily or for business. I have a skype in and cannot make or receive calls. I have been transitioning to yahoo over the past few months (due to Skypes lack of USA caller id and price hikes) and looking into other providers as well. But really I was on the fence because I've used skype for so long...However, this pretty much made my decision for me.

Carlazz · 2 years ago

Live in Thailand . . . sill no Skype here. It was intermittant this morning but has gone down hill since then. Looks like it will be closer to 24 hours.

Bandonio · 2 years ago

Was it a DOS attack ? (Skype is down in Switzerland in Italy)

If it is a software bug couldn't you roll back?


Skype developer and managers, please note that:

1)
ArpaNet was designed to grant connectivity between any two nodes in case of nuclear war where intermediate nodes could get offline (is internet above the percolation threshold?).

2)
Skype should exploit better the advantages of P2P.

3)
If I were an investor would I get money back ?

Crossing Fingers in Canada · 2 years ago

I am in London, Ontario Canada...and it is not working either! I am glad that it isn't just my machine, lol. I hope it comes back up soon. I have a lot of calls to make. Crossing Fingers.

Yani Kruger · 2 years ago

We here in Dourado, Sao Paulo, Brazil are also down with skype.
Hope Skype comes online soon , as here in Brazil our telephone rates are absolutely abusive.
We understand that nothing is foolproof, and just hope our Skype team gets its problem resolved soon

Ari K · 2 years ago

Skype is down in Finland also. Sometimes i can log in, but it cuts me off. I can see little bit over 500 000 users online, but i think they are out of service too. skype.co website has timeout at time to time... Could it be DoS attack against servers or just bad luck... Skype engineers have no problem how to spent their time next few hours...or worse... next few days.
I do hope they fix it fast because i use it for calls abroad. But for business people who depends on service it is much more worse situation.

Dave · 2 years ago

Skype is down in SW Turkey, logs on for 30 seconds then disconnects again.

Ari K · 2 years ago

I found new information about skype. It is not down :) You just can't login.. see following skype team announcement:
Yhey hope they fix the problem in 12 to 24 hours

http://heartbeat.skype.com/2007/08/problems_wit...

MadAsHellNotTakingItAnyMore · 2 years ago

OK has anybody out there done the math yet? Read this old news story:
1) http://www.kommersant.com/p725672/r_527/visit_B...

Then read this May 2007 story:
2) http://www.lunchoverip.com/2007/05/estonia_unde... (You can read his NY TIMES link here: http://d.cl1p.net/estonia/ )

Read the US Govt's side of the story:
3) http://tinyurl.com/2tjty6
4) http://tinyurl.com/32bhot
5) http://www.fas.org/sgp/crs/row/RS22692.pdf

Now do the math:
http://tinyurl.com/34rkze
(An "Oh shit!" FoxNews story about Skype! The Neocons are really pissed now!)

Not trying to be a conspiracy theorist but come on folks! Do you really think the Russians are doing this "thing" being called a "software glitch" today?

Not likely...

Darius · 2 years ago

does anyone knows when it all started.About 1am this morning skype was working ok.11am wnen woke up it was just dead.

Johan Swart · 2 years ago

Skype down in South Africa

MadAsHellNotTakingItAnyMore · 2 years ago

If Skype comes back up in 48 hours I'll be surprised. It may be down for the count as long as certain Nosy Sneaky Analyst people want to listen in to our Skype calls. "If you can't beat 'em {crash} 'em!"

Joe Seidl · 2 years ago

Skype is down in Memphis, for Elvis week...

May C · 2 years ago

Slightly *ANNOYED* that it wasn't connecting. I originally thought that Skype did something on their end and went through checking my router settings and ports.

Not a happy SkypeOut camper.

David · 2 years ago

Thanks for everyone's comments - please keep them coming, especially in the absence of much comment from Skype themselves (as Dawn pointed out)! Pretty poor response from their PR people it seems so far.

mark · 2 years ago

Down in sw florida, just hooked up skype at work, needless to say it dosent look good for skype or myself. It better be up quick :(

No skype in Australia either.. · 2 years ago

Nothing since 6pm today.... its now 1:30am...

Tom · 2 years ago

If anyone's looking for a really reliable alternative, why not try the public telephone network?! It's telephony grade, 99.9999999% uptime!

Dawn · 2 years ago

I think it wouldn't bother me as much if I could forward my Skype-in or change my voicemail. If I could forward it from the skype.com site (like I can in Vonage) then I wouldn't be so bothered. That is my busines line and I get up to 20 calls per day. If it's down for more than a day it could get ugly. It seems like it would be easy to do from my account login at skype.com. They may want to consider that for the tons of business users out there. Although I've been thinking about just adding another Vonage line instead because the call quality has become a problem and I've been getting complaints. But it truly is a great service all-in-all. I had a cable internet outage a week ago, so it's just part of the tech-reliant industries. Nothing is perfect!

David · 2 years ago

Thanks for the tip Tom ;) Somehow I don't think I can phone China for £0.03/min on my landline!!

Tom · 2 years ago

You're not with the right company then dude!

Rick · 2 years ago

Wow - sounds a bit global. Here in Malaga, SpainI thought it was my PC having had the phone cut off for a few days. Saves me spending any more time trying to fix it!

Rick

Joe Seidl · 2 years ago

Skype just came up! Back online for now in the Memphis area...

jeff · 2 years ago

OK THIS SUCKS... :(

Joe Seidl · 2 years ago

out again. that didn't last long.

Monkiman · 2 years ago

256K users last time I got in... YIKES .... the heartbeat page says

SkypeOut All working normally.
SkypeIn All working normally.
Skype Voicemail All working normally.
Skype SMS All working normally.

That's a joke... if you cant login.. NOTHING works ...

Monki

John · 2 years ago

I'm a developer in Poland and rely on skype to communicate with coders etc.

If they would just give access I could fix the problem in an hour :)

Oh well; guess we'll all just bitch and love them again next week.

Would really still like to get my hands on some of their early stock ;)

Mike · 2 years ago

David, you CAN call China for FAR less than £0.03/min from your landline in the UK.

Possible with various companies and no accounts needed using "dial around" info here:

callchecker.moneysavingexpert.com/intcallchecker/china

I have used some of the 1p/min ones to call China and countries in South America in the past

loopticon · 2 years ago

Skype is down!!!!!!......shazam!

wk · 2 years ago

Oh hell, it screwed me double, same time as skaype went down my telefon line did the dump too...
I am without connection to the outside world....
Only the Inet is working and my mobile

WK
(Annecy, France)

Tommy D · 2 years ago

Skype is down is Austin Texas, USA also. Tomorrow is the day when I am to pay for the new bill. For the voice mail etc. I will have to consider this as a non-option considering the current situation.

miranda · 2 years ago

what a coincidence ! wordl financial markets are suffering one of there metdown days and skype is down. 22 million users disconnected from skyping there brokers/bankers etc.

an some new silent privacy rules at skype: look at the FAQ on "backup of skype contcats" and You will find the reassuring news that skype is now storing Your contacts at their central server !

MadAsHellNotTakingItAnyMore · 2 years ago

OK FOLKS... SKYPE IS DOWN ACROSS THE PLANET!

No it's not a local phenomena its GLOBAL! Skype does have contingency plans for a SIMPLE outage. They have backup servers in Luxembourg, Tallin, and San Jose CA. They alos use your PC's as P2P routers. They are scrambling right now trying to figure out how this happened and if its artificial WHO's doing it and from where.

If it's the later "they" want Skype to look bad and drive away customers. Since most of them write in "squiggling" lines on SkypeCast you do the math... This is IMHO a "campaign" of the cyber-attack kind. I think its a tad more sophisticated than a DoS attack. Certian agency of the American government have already changed their mission statements to read that they will help American industry compete with foreign industry. Just GOOGLE in-q-tel "san jose" ca and find out what "is right up their alley."

Don't blame Skype. They were blind sided by some really smart hackers with heavy duty CD degrees form ivy league colleges. I know their screaming right now to the EU asking for terrorist charges to be filed against the perpetrators. If you read my links above in my other post you see they already did that a couple of months ago the 1st time it happened.

I think VONAGE is going to get a lot of new business. And I hate VONAGE as it sucks even more. I'd rather go back to DialPad or that other creepy VOIP vendor that I forget. This sucks as I have a bunch of business calls to make and receive!!! Complain to your congressman in intelligence oversight to make 'em stop! This is NOT what they meant by The Patriot Act!

MadAsHellNotTakingItAnyMore · 2 years ago

Oops: I meant CS degrees not CD Degrees. (CS = Computer Science)

Joe Blin · 2 years ago

This sucks. I use Skype for all my IM. Just gald I have been using Jangl for my voice calls.

David · 2 years ago

Looks like August 16th 2007 is going to go down in history as "Worldwide Skype Outage Day" - has there ever been an outage which has effected so many people (millions) like this before? I can't think of any off hand.

Russell · 2 years ago

Alas even in norfolk (where skype is still seen as the cutting edge of new technology), we are having problems haha!

Ivan · 2 years ago

Just thought I'd add that we're still offline in Copenhagen, Denmark at 7:06 GMT.

Djgeorgie · 2 years ago

Hi. I am from Sofia city - the capital of Bulgaria and Skype is down all day. 1-2 times I were logged in, but after I sent and received few messages, it dropped me and now stays on "Connecting". I have posted the news on my blog too. Hope Skype to be soon online, because it is very thrustrating situation.

Sirmartin · 2 years ago

Skype is up ...oops no wait .. it is down again ;-)
I finally get some housework done this way ...
And reminds me to cope all my contacts on msn, icq and yahoo IM too.

logicwonder · 2 years ago

I am from Kerala, India. Skype has been down for abt 8 hours. It shows signing in status but stays just like that. I now a days use only skype and am now really in a black out. Lets hope it will be back even better by tomrw.

SKYPE come back we are waiting for your service...

Anonymous · 2 years ago

At CST 11:00am in Texas, US I could log into skype. I also made a 'toll free' phone call. While my laptop kept putting up struggle, it connected again for a few seconds. Something seems to work... occasionally. Yet, like y'all, I'm keeping my fingers crossed too.

Koulla · 2 years ago

Skype is down in Cyprus tooooooooooooo...!!!!:(((

Andrew · 2 years ago

skype down in Barbados too

Kees · 2 years ago

I am in the Netherlands and second day that skype is down. It did connect briefly this morning (there si hope?) but after a minute went down again.

Vijit · 2 years ago

I have gizmo running on my PC just fo rthese kinds of moments.
http://gizmoproject.com/

I put in 20 dollars and I am just fine to call landlines or mobiles phones at least. Since most people don't have gizmo loaded on their PCs, you can't really do a PC to PC call. Either way I stil making really calls overseas.

Anonymous · 2 years ago

Finally... I see 3 million folks online. Relief, at last... with a realization that we're so ardent slaves of technology!

Giedre · 2 years ago

It seems that skype step by step is slowly coming up. I live in Italy. Today I can communicate with several friends from Lithuania.

Darius · 2 years ago

My brother in Lithuania says that skype slowly comming up but still very unstable connection

David · 2 years ago

Still down in London but connects occasionally before dropping off again...

Anita · 2 years ago

Still down in Belgium (at least for me). Connects for a minute then drops off again.

Jules · 2 years ago

It's still down here in Singapore. Managed to connect once or twice in the morning (after non-stop trying), before getting booted off after making one call per login.

Misko · 2 years ago

Still down in the Republic of Macedonia.

Andrew · 2 years ago

I was just browsing the forums, and saw this funny pic on the Skype forums, I got a giggle out of it

http://forum.skype.com/index.php?showtopic=94423

Vie · 2 years ago

Belgium. I've been able to log on for 1 hour now, this is the longest since yesterday morning! There are approx 2 250 000 people online, so hopefully thing are getting back to normal.

martin · 2 years ago

South Africa also down - this link will show your the number of skype users currently online ...not pretty at all

Rob Lowe · 2 years ago

Still down in China

dapa1 · 2 years ago

HAVENT SEEN Skype in NORWAY FOR ATLEAST 18 HOURS NOW

Anita · 2 years ago

Skype seems to be up in Belgium! :) and seems like in Malaysia as well.

Brillo · 2 years ago

12.30pmBST Still down in Ireland

Mikko · 2 years ago

Here in London:
I connect to Skype for about 1 minute per half hour. Contacts' icons go green and number of users online appears but I don't actually get to be able to talk to anyone. Right now Skype says "connecting".

David · 2 years ago

Mikko - I'm seeing exactly the same behaviour. On one occasion when I was momentarily online I was able to send an SMS message but not sure if it got through!

Tom · 2 years ago

The updates on the Skype's main web page are ridiculous!

F*** Skype really! I am sooooooooooooo pissssssssssed offffffffff!!!

(Belfast, UK).

Abi · 2 years ago

Still down in Dublin Ireland, won't allow any connection!

James · 2 years ago

Still offline here in South Africa. I wonder if all the people trying to reconnect at once are overloading the server?

mark · 2 years ago

still down in florida 9:40 am est friday.

John · 2 years ago

Down in Bahrain. Can't get in with my account can occasionally log on with wifes account.
How odd. Must be some fantastic conspiracy theories out ther.

Lee · 2 years ago

Still down in Hong Kong and China...it is now 9:45PM GMT 8.

Fotia.SYS · 2 years ago

Down in Greece and all over the world ...

It was dos attack ?
software algorithm ?
negative advertise for more skype clients ?

who knows ? who has the ability to know ?

Emma · 2 years ago

Skype is down in Singapore, it was working yesterday morning (Aug. 16th ) but has been down for over 24h.

myname · 2 years ago

Here is Bulgaria. My personal oppinoin: this is atack cause it smells so much already. We are not that stupid. This "algorithm" is made by them, and was working with more than 9 milns online. Even I like skype so much, I guess this crash is for better. All "Big" so much growing companies have to realise how actualy small they are.
Still not connecting to the servers during last more than 24 hours. In about any hour I connect for less than a minute.
Thats it :)
Dont have to cry so much, live goes, and always for better. ( by the way my last 24 hours are realy not so good )

geedee · 2 years ago

I think there must be something to this attack theory. Colorado in North America is still down also.
An algorithm issue seems very unlikely.
We rely heavily on Skype and hope they come back.
I liked the quote from Skype “The Skype system has not crashed or been victim of a cyber attack. We love our customers too much to let that happen.".
You can love your customers, doesn't mean you won't be impacted.

Brillo · 2 years ago

4pm BST Dublin Ireland. Looks like they are back. Been up for over 10 minutes now....even got a phone call in

Anita · 2 years ago

Skype seems to be fine for me (in Belgium). However, it doesn't seem to connect on my company's account. How weird!

Brillo · 2 years ago

never mind.....down again

tari · 2 years ago

skype is still down in Thailand...

Don · 2 years ago

Still down in Germany 17 Aug. @ 1700

Dan · 2 years ago

I am in Jordan and I have actually had intermittent connection over the day today. It is little use though since it does not last for more than 5 minute and no more than a couple of my contacts are connected at the same time.

SVEN · 2 years ago

I'm in the Philippines. Had SKYPE connection for almost 12 hours. Now at 17 GMT it's down again.

SVEN · 2 years ago

Oooops, now it's running again!

myname · 2 years ago

here in BG I have an account that works for an houre and more till this recent moment, and another one that did not connect on all that time.

Harry · 2 years ago

7:20 CET and still down in Brussels, Belgium...

lachko · 2 years ago

myname hello,dude!And I'm from BG,but I have tried to login,but nothing

lachko · 2 years ago

now i'm online :)

myname · 2 years ago

o fine, lachko :)
I did it since I have told already in last my post, so - still connected, BUT the other account that is benn uesturday actualy updated to the newes 3.5.0.202 si stil out ot the system... very strange, but as so many places over the net are not yet connected, it means the problem remain

Danny Boy · 2 years ago

Here in Philippines, yep I had a greeting from a friend when I logged in Meebo to use my YM there, "I can't login skype!", well nice greeting and didn't even asked how I was because I just had an asthma attack.

I decided to use another IM service since it was amazing to see that on a Friday night my Skype contacts are gray and offline. I am expecting SMS services countrywide to experience a sharp peak today due to Skype down. Probably more sales in McDonald's, people eat out because of Skype down. We know Skype is a part of our lives already...will it stay or go?

Giedre · 2 years ago

My skype shows that there are more than 4 millions online, but excluding me. I am becoming a little bit angry.

David · 2 years ago

I'm online now, and its showing a little less than 3 million users connected. I was able to chat to some friends earlier but obviously not everyone can connect still.

Sam Sequi · 2 years ago

Hello Ladies and Gents.

Skype seems to be up and running now. To make it work you should download the new version 3.5.0.214 posted on their website a few minutes ago.

For the techies, here is a link explaining what -- supposingly -- has been happening:

http://voipguides.blogspot.com/2007/08/skype-ou...

Anita · 2 years ago

Skype's up and running.

Franky · 2 years ago

It's midnight in Switzerland, 5.5 milion users are online and I just had a 20 minute coll with my friend in Argentina without any problem! Just fine!

Hendrix · 2 years ago

Skype was down here in Japan for 2 days!... now it seems back up again.... I think its sorted out now

GHM · 2 years ago

Tallahassee Florida USA
Skype STILL down.

GOODBYE Skype.... Hello Gizmo!

SkypeUser · 2 years ago

The moral to this story is DON'T SET YOUR MS UPDATE TO AUTO RESTART. Allow it to be a manual restart operation. The Skype p2p SuperNode failover algorithm has been adjusted for the many Skype authentication servers to pickup the failed supernode load. Hopefully this won't happen again.

I'm sure the "bad" guys are pondering how to exploit this flaw. I think adding more DBAR (disaster backup and recovery) servers and procedures will be key here too.

Gizmo and Vonage still sucks... IMO - GIZMO/VONAGE vs. SKYPE? Think about SAIC-Remailer Version 2007? http://tinyurl.com/yo5fr6
It could happen...