Cirrus N210MS
December 22nd, 2010, 12:05
Skype Outage, Millions Affected Worldwide
Published December 22, 2010
| FoxNews.com
http://a57.foxnews.com/static/managed/img/604/341/Skype-Web-Video-Computer-Screen.jpg
Reuters
DEVELOPING: Popular Internet telephony service Skype has crashed, inhibiting communication for millions of users trying to phone home for the holidays, the company has acknowledged.
Users across the globe reported issues accessing the service this morning, prompting the company to acknowledge the issue on Twitter (http://twitter.com/Skype): "Some of you may have problems signing in to Skype -- we're investigation, and we're sorry for the disruption to your conversations."
Skype followed up with another tweet assuring users that their "engineers and site operations are working non-stop to get things back to normal."
The problem is unconnected the hacking attacks that disabled (http://www.foxnews.com/scitech/2010/12/22/skype-outage-millions-affected-worldwide/#) popular websites such as MasterCard and Visa last week.
Chaim Haas, a Skype spokesman, explained to FoxNews.com that the Skype network relies on millions of individual connections between computers and phones to stay up and running, referencing a blog post (http://blogs.skype.com/en/2010/12/skype_downtime_today.html) by the company.
"Under normal circumstances, there are a large number of supernodes available," network features which act like phone directories for Skype, Haas said. "Unfortunately, today, many of them were taken offline by a problem affecting some versions of Skype."
Engineers are in the process of creating new "mega-supernodes" that should solve the problem, Haas said. Most normal services should return in a few hours, the company estimated although some features, such as group video calling, may take longer.
Luxembourg-based Skype was founded in 2003 as an alternative to the standard telephone network by transmitting voice, video, and text conversations the Internet.
In August, Skype announced plans to raise up to $100 million in shares by listing on the NASDAQ stock exchange (http://www.foxnews.com/scitech/2010/12/22/skype-outage-millions-affected-worldwide/#). Last month, the company announced a new milestone in traffic, with 25 million concurrent users.
On Tuesday, Skype CEO Tony Bates detailed the company's plans for expansion with MercuryNews.com (http://www.mercurynews.com/breaking-news/ci_16915061?source=rss&nclick_check=1). He hopes to charge consumers for unspecified "premium services," attract new users, and extend the service onto TV and mobile devices.
The last major outage occurred in 2007 and lasted an entire day.
Read more: http://www.foxnews.com/scitech/2010/12/22/skype-outage-millions-affected-worldwide/#ixzz18sQPJpN5
Published December 22, 2010
| FoxNews.com
http://a57.foxnews.com/static/managed/img/604/341/Skype-Web-Video-Computer-Screen.jpg
Reuters
DEVELOPING: Popular Internet telephony service Skype has crashed, inhibiting communication for millions of users trying to phone home for the holidays, the company has acknowledged.
Users across the globe reported issues accessing the service this morning, prompting the company to acknowledge the issue on Twitter (http://twitter.com/Skype): "Some of you may have problems signing in to Skype -- we're investigation, and we're sorry for the disruption to your conversations."
Skype followed up with another tweet assuring users that their "engineers and site operations are working non-stop to get things back to normal."
The problem is unconnected the hacking attacks that disabled (http://www.foxnews.com/scitech/2010/12/22/skype-outage-millions-affected-worldwide/#) popular websites such as MasterCard and Visa last week.
Chaim Haas, a Skype spokesman, explained to FoxNews.com that the Skype network relies on millions of individual connections between computers and phones to stay up and running, referencing a blog post (http://blogs.skype.com/en/2010/12/skype_downtime_today.html) by the company.
"Under normal circumstances, there are a large number of supernodes available," network features which act like phone directories for Skype, Haas said. "Unfortunately, today, many of them were taken offline by a problem affecting some versions of Skype."
Engineers are in the process of creating new "mega-supernodes" that should solve the problem, Haas said. Most normal services should return in a few hours, the company estimated although some features, such as group video calling, may take longer.
Luxembourg-based Skype was founded in 2003 as an alternative to the standard telephone network by transmitting voice, video, and text conversations the Internet.
In August, Skype announced plans to raise up to $100 million in shares by listing on the NASDAQ stock exchange (http://www.foxnews.com/scitech/2010/12/22/skype-outage-millions-affected-worldwide/#). Last month, the company announced a new milestone in traffic, with 25 million concurrent users.
On Tuesday, Skype CEO Tony Bates detailed the company's plans for expansion with MercuryNews.com (http://www.mercurynews.com/breaking-news/ci_16915061?source=rss&nclick_check=1). He hopes to charge consumers for unspecified "premium services," attract new users, and extend the service onto TV and mobile devices.
The last major outage occurred in 2007 and lasted an entire day.
Read more: http://www.foxnews.com/scitech/2010/12/22/skype-outage-millions-affected-worldwide/#ixzz18sQPJpN5