Comments on: Does Skype Outage Expose P2P’s Limitations?

By: Suresh

Suresh — Tue, 17 Mar 2009 19:41:51 +0000

I tend to agree with Ian that Skype may not actually be p2p concept. That makes it vulnerable to hold ups on the network. Will Skype come out with an explanation to the contrary?

By: el blog de dsa : Sobre la caida de m&amp;#225;s de 30 horas de skype

el blog de dsa : Sobre la caida de m&amp;#225;s de 30 horas de skype — Fri, 28 Dec 2007 15:22:01 +0000

[...] hablar de que esto nos viene bien a los que vendemos servicios que no se apoyan en las redes p2p… http://gigaom.com/2007/08/16/skype-outage/Algo más sobre el tema, al parecer, lo que más ha indignado a los gurús -que de [...]

By: CLR II: vaciando la lista de referencias : La Cofa - Blog de Vigilancia Tecnológica

Mon, 03 Sep 2007 13:39:14 +0000

[...] Telefonía IP: Does Skype Outage Expose P2P’s Limitations? [...]

By: Jim Whiteley

Jim Whiteley — Thu, 30 Aug 2007 15:18:27 +0000

Very interesting discussion. My view point is from managing a server centric network for 15 years with millions of messages each day. Server based networks reboot easily and grow badly while P2P networks grow well and reboot poorly. You are correct, Skypes has never tested network rebooting and cannot with 200 million nodes but they can do a lot better job than they apparently have done simulating it.

A lot is said about scaling large networks but little about rebooting them. The complexity of rebooting a network seems to grow exponentially with the number of nodes. What will happen when power goes off one or two of Google's large data centers? Though they will have problems, I doubt if they are anything like the dimension of Skypes' problems.

Also remember, the mean time to repair goes to infinity as the mean time between failures goes to infinity. If it doesn't fail you can't fix it when it does! The fact that Skypes has never encountered this problem before makes repair really, really hard.

By: Ian Andrew Bell

Ian Andrew Bell — Mon, 20 Aug 2007 17:32:25 +0000

Skype’s outage doesn’t expose that there are problems with Peer-to-Peer applications. Instead, it exposes the fact that Skype is actually not really a Peer-to-Peer application.

By: Butterfly Effect? « Reverberations

Butterfly Effect? « Reverberations — Mon, 20 Aug 2007 13:58:37 +0000

[...] Skype Blog on Skype’s outage over last week (blaming re-boots after regular Tuesday Windows updates): “The abnormally high [...]

By: Medhavi

Medhavi — Mon, 20 Aug 2007 04:21:29 +0000

I posted some analysis on my blog. I think the problem is not related to any authentication service or software issue. It seems to me that Skype never thought how to handle problems in a distributed system scenario where one node depends on another to provide service. My guess is that this provides a taste of things to not only Skype but all of us. Lets see what Skype announces (if there are any announcements…)

http://techpiper.blogspot.com/2007/08/face-facts.html

By: GigaOM Skype Crisis: Where were the eBay Management? «

GigaOM Skype Crisis: Where were the eBay Management? « — Sun, 19 Aug 2007 03:42:29 +0000

[...] in this moment of crisis, eBay’s senior management was AWOL. Ebay and Skype management are happy to talk to the press [...]

By: » In light of Skype disruption, remember not all P2P is the same | IP Telephony, VoIP, Broadband | ZDNet.com

Fri, 17 Aug 2007 21:27:51 +0000

[...] Aron responded to a post Om wrote today about the Skype outage. Om’s post is entitled, Does Skype’s outage indicate a fatal flaw in using Peer-to-Peer?” [...]

By: David Mackey

David Mackey — Fri, 17 Aug 2007 17:41:22 +0000

The internet has also been shown to be exceptionally weak. Everything is not as strong as we wish it were.

By: share.websitemagazine.com

share.websitemagazine.com — Fri, 17 Aug 2007 15:14:48 +0000

Does Skype Outage Expose P2P’s Limitations? «

Peer-to-peer by its very nature is supposed to work without a problem, with packets finding their way to good peers, and then moving on to their final destination.

By: Paul Elosegui

Paul Elosegui — Fri, 17 Aug 2007 12:37:22 +0000

If only the SIP standard provided 50% of skype's audio quality...

An open standards play always has a slower start than a closed proprietary standard. Remember Amstrad and Sinclair computers?

With a closed standard big investments can be quickly justified and projects can be aggressive. It takes time for open standards to acquire critical mass and those fabled network effects.

Anyway. My rambling thoughts as I await my Skype phone TO CONNECT ALREADY. I cannot believe it now 36 hours of outage in London.

By: James

James — Fri, 17 Aug 2007 10:41:32 +0000

Wow that really sucks that Skype went down. I was in the forums, and I ran into this

http://forum.skype.com/index.php?showtopic=94423

I thought it was pretty funny.

By: Tim Wheatley

Tim Wheatley — Fri, 17 Aug 2007 07:37:24 +0000

To say that this exposes the weakness in P2P is a little extreme, all that seems to be failing is Skype’s authentication system, something that isn’t actually a requirement for P2P, but is for a paid service using P2P data communication.

By: Matteo Moro » Blog Archive » Grossi problemi per Skype, milioni di utenti non riescono a collegarsi

Fri, 17 Aug 2007 07:29:39 +0000

[...] GigaOM, 16/08/2007: “Does Skype outage expose P2P’s limitations?“ [...]

By: GigaOM Skype Groans & SIPphone Gains «

GigaOM Skype Groans & SIPphone Gains « — Fri, 17 Aug 2007 05:22:12 +0000

[...] at 10:18 PM PT | No comments It has been a day from hell for Skype fans and Skype, the company. The outages have impacted many. Skype’s misfortune turned out to be a boon for [...]