6 ms·

Skype Down

54 points by itamarb 11y ago

nerdy 11y ago
I wonder if this has anything to do with their inclusion of Skype call support directly in Edge. http://www.digitaltrends.com/?p=836715 http://www.digitaltrends.com/?p=836715 http://www.pcworld.com/article/2984806/web-apps/microsofts-edge-browser-will-soon-support-skype-calls-without-a-plugin.html http://www.pcworld.com/article/2984806/web-apps/microsofts-e... http://www.engadget.com/2015/09/19/skype-for-web-will-soon-work-without-plug-ins-on-microsoft-edge/ http://www.engadget.com/2015/09/19/skype-for-web-will-soon-w... https://blogs.office.com/2015/09/18/enabling-seamless-communication-experiences-for-the-web-with-skype-skype-for-business-and-microsoft-edge/ https://blogs.office.com/2015/09/18/enabling-seamless-commun...
kraftman 11y ago
didnt skype used to be p2p so that things like this wouldnt happen?
- shin_lao 11y ago
  It used to be. But Microsoft made it more centralized.
  - deleted 11y ago
    [deleted]
  - mironathetin 11y ago
    Indeed, great move. Although, judging upon the number of comments, no-one seems to care that much.
    - yread 11y ago
      Well they said it was because of the post-pc era, more mobile phones connecting to skype, mobile phones are not really suited for p2p video streaming. But then they somehow managed to make skype mobile experience so bad that it probably wouldn't be that big of a problem
- Mahn 11y ago
  It was never fully p2p was it? Calls and messaging may have been p2p at some point before Microsoft, but you still needed an account managed by a centralized entity to authenticate with the service.
- Jasper_ 11y ago
  Heavens no. Skype used to be extremely unreliable back when it was P2P-based. Calls or voice used to drop for minutes at a time. Text messages would get lost to the aether, or come in doubles or triples. Skype peers were unreliable, so they identified good peers, which they tagged as SuperNodes, or SNs. Large amounts of these SuperNodes could go down in an instant due to network outages out of their control, buggy software, bad computers, and more. The Skype blog is full of "whoops, too many supernodes went down!" from 2008-2011. http://web.archive.org/web/20110829025128/http://blogs.skype.com/en/2010/12/skype_downtime_today.html http://web.archive.org/web/20110829025128/http://blogs.skype... They then added dedicated "mega-supernodes" which they just shoved in an EC2 cloud, and after non-mega SN population declined as mobile took off, they just turned off the P2P-based SN feature.
  - Ace17 11y ago
    Tox-im is peer to peer, and calls work rather well (voice + video).
antidaily 11y ago
Back up for me.
alexivanovs 11y ago
Been down for 8+ hours here and still unable to connect. They said an hour ago that it's being rectified. [1] [1]: https://twitter.com/Skype/status/645980952930447360 https://twitter.com/Skype/status/645980952930447360
- reuven 11y ago
  They also said that this didn't affect business users. Which sounds a lot like, "Non-cheapskates didn't have any problems!"
- Pamar 11y ago
  I have used the web client for the past six hours with no problem at all ... https://login.skype.com/login https://login.skype.com/login
viach 11y ago
Weird, I also had troubles with Skype today and tried Hangouts - it worked very well (means not that terrible experience as usually). Coincidence?
- bad_user 11y ago
  Hangouts worked for us a couple of hours ago, but half an hour ago it stopped working, triggering errors. I believe a lot of people jumped on it and it's also having hiccups. Also, Skype just recovered for us, we're having a call in 4 as I'm writing this. EDIT: Skype is still misbehaving.
xrjn 11y ago
Still having issues connecting - a few hours ago I couldn't sign in, now I'm having trouble loading my contact list.
johansch 11y ago
That headline seems to downplay it a lot. It was totally down for at least 6 hours. I introduced Slack to the team today...
- kanusterkund 11y ago
  Which one? The one that says "Skype Down" or the tabloid one that screams "Skype DOWN: Microsoft messenger and video chat app NOT working across the GLOBE"?
  - johansch 11y ago
    Twenty minutes ago it said "Skype down for some customers". Now both the HN title and the target website title has been edited.
- helical 11y ago
  http://isskypedown.com http://isskypedown.com is actually a thing, and it should redirect to https://slack.com/pricing https://slack.com/pricing
  - lewisl9029 11y ago
    Do we have any reason to assume Slack would do any better than Skype with respect to availability in the long term though? You should really be looking at an on-premises solution if availability is really that much of a concern, in my own humble opinion.
- petecoop 11y ago
  I also introduced Slack to the team, and now we're not going back!
tluyben2 11y ago
Still 'down' here (in Spain) however it was never really down for us (NL/ES/UK); it says you are offline and all in the list are offline but chatting and calling etc just works as normal (I called phone numbers, Skype users and chatted) even though it reports offline. If you logout however you cannot login again. I don't have a business account.
wavesum 11y ago
no skype here yet (finland)

54 points by itamarb 11y ago

nerdy 11y ago

I wonder if this has anything to do with their inclusion of Skype call support directly in Edge. http://www.digitaltrends.com/?p=836715 http://www.digitaltrends.com/?p=836715 http://www.pcworld.com/article/2984806/web-apps/microsofts-edge-browser-will-soon-support-skype-calls-without-a-plugin.html http://www.pcworld.com/article/2984806/web-apps/microsofts-e... http://www.engadget.com/2015/09/19/skype-for-web-will-soon-work-without-plug-ins-on-microsoft-edge/ http://www.engadget.com/2015/09/19/skype-for-web-will-soon-w... https://blogs.office.com/2015/09/18/enabling-seamless-communication-experiences-for-the-web-with-skype-skype-for-business-and-microsoft-edge/ https://blogs.office.com/2015/09/18/enabling-seamless-commun...

kraftman 11y ago

didnt skype used to be p2p so that things like this wouldnt happen?

shin_lao 11y ago
It used to be. But Microsoft made it more centralized.
- deleted 11y ago
  [deleted]
- mironathetin 11y ago
  Indeed, great move. Although, judging upon the number of comments, no-one seems to care that much.
  - yread 11y ago
    Well they said it was because of the post-pc era, more mobile phones connecting to skype, mobile phones are not really suited for p2p video streaming. But then they somehow managed to make skype mobile experience so bad that it probably wouldn't be that big of a problem
Mahn 11y ago
It was never fully p2p was it? Calls and messaging may have been p2p at some point before Microsoft, but you still needed an account managed by a centralized entity to authenticate with the service.
Jasper_ 11y ago
Heavens no. Skype used to be extremely unreliable back when it was P2P-based. Calls or voice used to drop for minutes at a time. Text messages would get lost to the aether, or come in doubles or triples. Skype peers were unreliable, so they identified good peers, which they tagged as SuperNodes, or SNs. Large amounts of these SuperNodes could go down in an instant due to network outages out of their control, buggy software, bad computers, and more. The Skype blog is full of "whoops, too many supernodes went down!" from 2008-2011. http://web.archive.org/web/20110829025128/http://blogs.skype.com/en/2010/12/skype_downtime_today.html http://web.archive.org/web/20110829025128/http://blogs.skype... They then added dedicated "mega-supernodes" which they just shoved in an EC2 cloud, and after non-mega SN population declined as mobile took off, they just turned off the P2P-based SN feature.
- Ace17 11y ago
  Tox-im is peer to peer, and calls work rather well (voice + video).

antidaily 11y ago

Back up for me.

alexivanovs 11y ago

Been down for 8+ hours here and still unable to connect. They said an hour ago that it's being rectified. [1] [1]: https://twitter.com/Skype/status/645980952930447360 https://twitter.com/Skype/status/645980952930447360

reuven 11y ago
They also said that this didn't affect business users. Which sounds a lot like, "Non-cheapskates didn't have any problems!"
Pamar 11y ago
I have used the web client for the past six hours with no problem at all ... https://login.skype.com/login https://login.skype.com/login

viach 11y ago

Weird, I also had troubles with Skype today and tried Hangouts - it worked very well (means not that terrible experience as usually). Coincidence?

bad_user 11y ago
Hangouts worked for us a couple of hours ago, but half an hour ago it stopped working, triggering errors. I believe a lot of people jumped on it and it's also having hiccups. Also, Skype just recovered for us, we're having a call in 4 as I'm writing this. EDIT: Skype is still misbehaving.

xrjn 11y ago

Still having issues connecting - a few hours ago I couldn't sign in, now I'm having trouble loading my contact list.

johansch 11y ago

That headline seems to downplay it a lot. It was totally down for at least 6 hours. I introduced Slack to the team today...

kanusterkund 11y ago
Which one? The one that says "Skype Down" or the tabloid one that screams "Skype DOWN: Microsoft messenger and video chat app NOT working across the GLOBE"?
- johansch 11y ago
  Twenty minutes ago it said "Skype down for some customers". Now both the HN title and the target website title has been edited.
helical 11y ago
http://isskypedown.com http://isskypedown.com is actually a thing, and it should redirect to https://slack.com/pricing https://slack.com/pricing
- lewisl9029 11y ago
  Do we have any reason to assume Slack would do any better than Skype with respect to availability in the long term though? You should really be looking at an on-premises solution if availability is really that much of a concern, in my own humble opinion.
petecoop 11y ago
I also introduced Slack to the team, and now we're not going back!

tluyben2 11y ago

Still 'down' here (in Spain) however it was never really down for us (NL/ES/UK); it says you are offline and all in the list are offline but chatting and calling etc just works as normal (I called phone numbers, Skype users and chatted) even though it reports offline. If you logout however you cannot login again. I don't have a business account.

wavesum 11y ago

no skype here yet (finland)