Skype goes titsup across globe
Mass supernode death
Posted in VoIP, 22nd December 2010 19:31 GMT
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Skype users across the globe are unable to access the popular peer-to-peer VoIP service.
According to a mountain of Twitter posts and myriad emails from Register readers, the service is experiencing a worldwide outage. Skype acknowledged the outage in a blog post, saying its engineers are working to restore the service.
The company attributed the outage to an unspecified problem that took many of the Skype "supernodes" offline. "Earlier today, we noticed that the number of people online on Skype was falling, which wasn’t typical or expected, so we began to investigate," the company said. "Under normal circumstances, there are a large number of supernodes available. Unfortunately, today, many of them were taken offline by a problem affecting some versions of Skype. As Skype relies on being able to maintain contact with supernodes, it may appear offline for some of you."
The post goes on to say that engineers are working to build "mega-supernodes" that will return the service to normal. "This may take a few hours, and we sincerely apologise for the disruption to your conversations. Some features, like group video calling, may take longer to return to normal," the company said.
A Skype spokesman tells The Reg: "Skype apologizes for the inconvenience caused to their users and we’re sorry for the disruption to your conversations." ®
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