In case you hadn’t noticed (or read about it elsewhere) Skype has been offline since around 11am this morning. It is now 5pm.
This is the first time I can remember Skype being unavailable since I started using it 3-4 years ago.
Is anyone using it as their only means of telephony? Up to now, that would have been quite tempting.
I started using Gizmo project (http://gizmoproject.com/) a while ago as an alternative to skype as it let me call people from my mac who are using google talk for VOIP. I use both now depending on which network the person I’m calling is on.
Another advantage is that skype has become so resource-hungry, it is difficult to use it on older computers. I’ve used Gizmo on computers that can’t run skype.
Cheers for the info. I’ve just spent the last 1/2 hour trying to config proxy settings. Oh well! – now I know.
-steve
Amazing. We’ve been trying to connect all day too but I had guessed it was service downtime and to their credit they’ve updated the homepage to reflect.
Incidentally, their strapline takes on new meaning. Take a deep breath indeed :O)
Don’t use Skype all that regularly, but I was — funnily enough — planning a lengthy conference call this very evening. Grrr.
Trying out alternatives now.. there really doesn’t seem to be any on par with Skype. WengoPhone seems OK but the conference call just isn’t working.
Bad show.
Well, heres the latest update from Skype……..
Hello everyone,
Apologies for the delay, but we can now update you on the Skype sign-on issue. As we continue to work hard at resolving the problem, we wanted to dispel some of the concerns that you may have. The Skype system has not crashed or been victim of a cyber attack. We love our customers too much to let that happen. This problem occurred because of a deficiency in an algorithm within Skype networking software. This controls the interaction between the user’s own Skype client and the rest of the Skype network.
Rest assured that everyone at Skype is working around the clock — from Tallinn to Luxembourg to San Jose — to resume normal service as quickly as possible.
UPDATED 16 August, 2007 22:00 GMT.
That is quite alarming, actually. I thought it was a peer to peer system. As such, you would not expect the whole thing to be able to fail at once.
An interesting theory as to what’s actually going on: http://gigaom.com/2007/08/16/skype-groans-sipphone-gains/#comment-456134
thought it was something wrong with my desktop / Laptop.on skype for 4yr’s first time it has gone down was trying to connect all day
down in SFO C.A also friend rang to say probplem with skype unable to connect he knows now it is world wide
Yes its over 24 hours since i or my friend on the other side of the pond could get online with Skype. Funny thing though, AOL UK customers have had similar problems for the last week. The system went down, and the only way to get back online was to reinstall the AOL software. Although this worked we found that their UI software had dumped all addresses and lists of favorites and now a week later the situation remains. The addresses still remain on the main servers but the only way to replace them is to add them one at a time. I have hundreds and am well pissed off by this as you can imagine. I wonder though whether there has been some kind of cyber attack which caused all this as rather a lot of services are faulty or offline at the moment and i cannot remember so many occuring at the same time before.
Don’t use Skype all that regularly, but I was — funnily enough — planning a lengthy conference call this very evening. Grrr.
Trying out alternatives now.. there really doesn’t seem to be any on par with Skype. WengoPhone seems OK but the conference call just isn’t working.
Bad show.