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 are logged in has dropped to about 2.5 million. Which also means that the p2p network is just about half the size that it’s used to be. If a good portion of the Skype users experiences the same problems, I guess the network is not present at all as any joining node leaves the network quite fast again.
One might draw the conclusion that although there is a 2.5 million node network, it is more of a virtual kind, as it might be fast changing due to failing nodes and missing links. This behavior is actually quite close to ad-hoc networks. I’m interested to see what the Skype guys find out about the cause for this behavior: http://heartbeat.skype.com/2007/08/problems_with_skype_login.htm (thanks to AvionarU for the link)
[edit 14:06] Ok, here’s an educated guess about what might be going on: It appears to me that the network gets fragmented. Nodes (Clients) get disconnected or disconnect themselves for some reason. A node getting disconnected also disconnects other nodes from the network, especially if they are one of the heavy duty nodes that constitute the hubs of the Skype network. Then millions of nodes try to reconnect to other hubs, causing quite some load to them and maybe causing them to go down again. It could be some sort of vicious circle.
[edit 14:31] That’s a new record: my client get’s to know about 509.071 connected clients in the Skype network. Looks like there are quite some people that have problems connection to the network. Quoting Skype heartbeat:
UPDATED: Some of you may be having problems logging in to Skype. Our engineering team has determined that it’s a software issue and hopes to have this resolved quickly. 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.
[edit 15:22] Skype Heartbeat says: “We expect this to be resolved within 12 to 24 hours.”
Dirk's Metric/k 
been experiencing this as well since the morning in London.
Very weird…
The world of Skype has failed!
Updates or maintenance that has not been tested will do this every time
SKYPE in South Africa also down….very annoying. This is what happens when things grow too big too quickly…..
Skype still down in southern Europe… Europe had Microsoft updates yesterday (america’s tuesday patches). Was there any fix for servers that causes Skype to mulfunction? Just an idea… Since it was Tuesday. I know my computer updated yesterday (Wednesday)
austria: on & off / 1.3m users online
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Hmm… there might be a connection, though I’m not sure how much Skype network functionality relies on Microsoft software and how much these could interfere.
At least it’s confirmed to be a software issue, and not a hardware one. Software issues tend to be fixed more quickly than hardware ones.
For the record, it’s definitely not a Microsoft-related issue. Skype on Linux is doing exactly the same thing, and I’m pretty sure that Bill’s update team haven’t been parading any monkey business on Linux, or else someone would have noticed.
Hi from morning iam facing this problem…never happened before to me……
my life is my skype…
i appreacite if u can do it quickly…..
Thanks & Regards
sesh
matt. could still be a microsoft problem (not very likely though). most hosts run windows. if they disconnect and tear the network down (as in dirsk theory) all other operating systems will be affected too.
maybe a recent windowsupdate
they were rolling out a few in the last days. the cumulative security update and this one jumped into my eyes: http://support.microsoft.com/kb/938828
im faceing connecting problem please any one have any information when it’ll be fix???/
they updated the heartbeat message: “We expect this to be resolved within 12 to 24 hours.”
thanks
Fix Skype damn it, I need my boyfriend!
Last few hours my skype is constantly green. Few people on my list are also green and with them i dont have any problems but most of the people are offline or sometimes ofline sometimes online and i cant communicate with them.
So parts of skype network are working just fine…
I am editing softaware, and know how some bug are crazy ! happy not to be the only people being silent….
same here in Amsterdam AND Sao Paulo : not able to login! Also this happens on my Dualphone (embedded Skype + landline), that logs in directly on the skype network through my modem. So seems not to be a Microsoft issue?
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Canada som US states and Costa Rica is down. All our company phones was changed on Skype in n umbers. May be it was mistake?
Can we trust system like this
Well its down in Guyana (south America) also,I can only say this is a major. This new version of their software that evolved from their last Beta testing, was not that good. So i really dont know if this corrupts their P2P system.
It’s down for hours here on the US west coast.
this sucks, just when i really need skype, It fails on me, how ironic that i came to depend upon, but when truly needed, it crashes and burns
arstechnica wrote:
What makes this Skype outage surprising is how often it DOESN’T happen. This is the most significant outage for the service in years, yet we already foresee scores of headlines trumpeting the flaws of VOIP communications based on this outage alone. That’s unfortunate because we think Skype network performance has been spectacular on average, given that it’s free and heavily used.
eastern Europe also down, must be some serious problem
Help!!! Skype problems logo – Izabela.Max – Poland
One might think that this could be the source….
planned maintainence My guess is a new problem with hosted software probably the (semi) central login server.
Hmmm.Switzerland offline as well
Hi guys,
i’ll recommend you don’t trust only one VOIP company I never even think about it skype can be down I have flight 2day that’s why I had 2 call my wife but because of skype :S…. so just I shifted other voip so pls pls don’t trust … im very disappointed from skype …. I was skype lover :(
Sype is playing silly b*gg**s here in Australia too. First time I’ve ever have a problem like this in 5 years of using it. Ho hum.
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It`s down in Canada too. Come back!!!
Still down here this morning in Midwestern USA August 17
very interesting. i’m adding in RSS Reader
Still having these same issues, akype refuses to acknoledge any problems either. Fix it soon or I will find another client that works without this hassle.
sory for may english,may skyse stil not vorking,not posible registr.
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everything is sowing ofline try to make calls but cant