What on earth is happening with Skype?

"Not entirely understood"

17 August 2007 16:27 GMT / By Amy-Mae Elliott

Skype's VoIP services are reported as being back to normal in some parts of the world today after a software problem that saw users without service since yesterday is slowly being resolved.

Here in the UK the official line is still that they are "working around the clock to resume normal service as quickly as possible".

The biggest technical problem the eBay-owned company has ever experienced will not go far to persuade more corporate customers to utilise the technology.

Apparently down to a flaw in the Skype software, never before detected but present in every copy of the program ever downloaded, Skype have said the crash was due to
a "unique set of events".

The UK PR team say: "The problem occurred because of a deficiency in am algorithm within the Skype networking software. This controls the interaction between the user's own Skype client and the rest of the Skype network".

Skype blocked new downloads of its software yesterday - a programme that has been downloaded nearly 220 million times, although closer to five or six million use it on a daily basis.

Despite the fact that it was Skype's chief security officer liaising with the press in the States, the company insists it was not a cyber attack.

However, sharp-eyed bods at The Inquirer have noticed a Denial of Service doing the rounds that calls Skype phone numbers thousands of letters long in an infinite loop...

Full tags

Software, Skype, VoIP