Comments on: Skype's 'unprecedented' outage

The VoIP company offers a mea culpa for its disrupted service last week, which it says stemmed from a routine Windows update.

[cchenoweth6]

30% of those machines don't auto-login

If 30% are business users.. they didn't auto-login on restart. Plus, I know lots of people who turn it off, or use multiple users on XP.

Isn't their a law for a public company to not lie about something that could affect shares???

[daftkey]

auto-login

Because all businesses have network admins, right? I'd bet at least 90% (more likely 99%) of businesses that use Skype as their main form of communication do so because they are short-sighted when it comes to cost control. This means they will not see the expense of IT personnell as adding value.

Thus they are self-administrative with their networks which, 9 times out of 10, means they are running the default settings on every program on their computer.

[keith.r.benedict]

I don't buy it

I just don't buy it. I have to reboot after nearly every update from Microsoft. These updates (most of which require a reboot) have been going on for years. If it really caused the problem, why didn't it cause a problem last month or any of the prior months?

This sounds like a "we're not sure why the problem happened, but it happened at the same time as THIS happened, so it must be THIS" case. It's easy to blame Microsoft and that sounds exactly like what Skype is doing.

[freemarket--2008]

Not Blaming MicroSoft

They merely stated that the patch triggered the problem. Which it most likely did.

From Computerworld:

'Although Skype fingered Tuesday's Windows updates for triggering the outage, it said the root cause was "a previously unseen software bug within the network resource-allocation algorithm" that prevented the network from recovering on its own, as it was supposed to do.'

[Stating]

In A Sense, They Could Be Right

It is certainly possible that Skype introduced a bug somewhere along the line in their software so that it no longer handled a large number of simultaneous logins. But that would have to have occurred between the last Patch Tuesday and this one.

On the other hand, we get boloney explanations from companies all the time about system failures. Just last week it was the passenger clearing system at LAX. The two outages were "supposed" to have been caused by a bad network card. Maybe, maybe not.

[yipcanjo]

BOGUS!

C'mon Skype...that's a bunch of bull. Users' systems rebooting and auto-logging in caused Skype to go down for a couple of days? Didn't Skype just confess to having up to 9 million users logged in at some point? I think your system is robust enough to handle some concurrent logins.

Please rethink your reply and get us the REAL story. Stop blaming Microsoft...

[WJeansonne]

Proof, there's no free lunch.

Most Skype users are probably completely unaware that Skpe uses their computers to power its telecom network via peer-to-peer services. They probably thought they were getting "free" telephone service all along.

[Vegaman_Dan]

Failure to plan for predictable events.

Saying that their outage was caused by a regular Windows Update that caused end user machines to reboot and that stressed Skype's login servers is simply ridiculous.

Can they honestly say they couldn't predict that would happen? Was this the first time Microsoft has ever released an update that required a reboot? I mean come on, they've been doing that for over a decade now. Surely Skype would have noticed that and figured that into their planning.


I just don't buy it.

[jmdunys]

Oh oh oh

...we seem to have Microsoft crusaders in the house!

Any administrator who manages a a network of more than 100
machines now what havoc can be created (and I do write: CAN
be) by Microsoft automatic update. In fact, even when you plan a
schedule update (like at night) for all your PCs and another night
for the server, even when you know what the update is about
and what it should be doing, you NEVER REALLY know what the
end result will be like...

How many times did I had to come in early to restart some
Exchange services, manually disconnect and reconnect USB2
devices, etc. following a Windows update...

How many times have I witnessed unusual IP activity from the
workstations following a Windows update...

I'm not having a go at Microsoft, or pitting them against another
platform. It's just reality

[Maccess]

Skype's devious installer at fault

It's Skype's conceit and devious installer that is at fault.

Their installer implants Skype to start up automatically. If you remove the startup, it reinstalls it automatically unless the user disables auto-startup with each and every login.

It's the same with Yahoo Messenger.

All these conceited IM software developers think everyone want's their IM to run all the time.

They can't blame anyone except themselves.

[Ck87.JF]

skype & IM installers, auto-start

Perhaps you have no clue what you're doing, or maybe just not saving your settings, but I have myspace, aol, yahoo, msn, trillian, and pidgin IM. NONE of these start with my system, and only run when I ask it to.
Many installers ask you upon installation (sometimes in "advanced" configuration) if you want it to start with the system. I tell it no. If not, you can go into the settings and turn it off.
Just to make sure, you can type "msconfig" at the run prompt, and make sure it's unchecked in the startup tab.

While the big-name messengers may be bloated & crappy (why I use trillian/pidgin mostly), they aren't so devious as to blatantly disregard a settings change. That's your own fault.

[ralfthedog]

Contradictory statements

1. "The restart stemmed from a routine Windows update."

2. "Skype was keen to say that the outage was not the work of hackers or any other malicious activity, "

You can have one or the other, but not both. ;

:)

[Carion]

Too much indignation

Skype is a fun application that (mis?)uses other peoples resources.
If you (mis)use it for serious/business things, it's your own fault. Use a professional VOIP service.

[ONEderer]

Skype reboot

If Skype want's to make sure that there would be no outages becasue of a reboot after a software update or upgrade, they should switch over to Linux. No reboots are necessary after an update has been accomplished. And Linux is more stable than Windows. I know, I use both.

[ralfthedog]

misunderstanding

I could be wrong, I have had a very rough day, however as I read the story, It was not the Skype severs that were rebooting. It was the clients all rebooting at the same time.