After no one bought their first explanation, Skype is trying one more time, this time elaborating on the Microsoft connection. Some of the details they offered is what the bloggers had already guessed.
In previous instances where a large number of supernodes in the P2P network were rebooted, other factors of a “perfect storm” had not been present. That is, there had not been such a combination of high usage load during supernode rebooting.
They still don’t answer two basic questions: Why did the breakdown happen on Thursday, and not on Tuesday when typically Microsoft patches are released? Second, will it happen again?
Yes, the bug has been squashed. The fix means that we’ve tuned Skype’s P2P core so that it can cope with simultaneous P2P network load and core size changes similar to those that occurred on August 16.
9 comments so far
8:00 AM PT
Your writing has become very annoying. You are not adding value to this conversation or many others for that matter. Your articles increasingly have provided less and less value to me and seem to have an ever expanding bent for the negative and cynical.
Maybe you need to get some rest and wake up on the other side of the bed.
8:36 AM PT
Om, you’re right. They are trying again, but I still don’t think they get it. I just wrote a 5 page essay on what they did wrong and how they could have done this better. At this point, it’s less about the service being back online, it’s not about credibility, service, and branding. http://tinyurl.com/22gxr7
8:41 AM PT
enough om, seriously, you are repeating yourself. This was last weeks news, try finding something interesting to put on your site, some new technology with some technical depth that is not zoho metoo web 2.0 tech.
10:15 AM PT
Tee hee. Another sign of success, Om. You’re acquiring trolls.
10:23 AM PT
/me sends a Usenet nod to Om and to Eideard and laughs a little. Thanks for the updates.
1:45 PM PT
[...] As GigaOm rightly questions - how come this happened on a Thursday, when MS patches are released on a Tuesday? There appears to be no answer to this. [...]
8:12 PM PT
I’m not worried about it - and it seems more than reasonable. Consumers largely don’t intentionally install updates - they probably got pushed out when the user rebooted their machine, and at businesses the updates probably went through a day or two of testing.
5:08 AM PT
My worry now is not that the Skype service went down, or whether it was one or two days after MPT (Microsoft Patch Tuesday), but:
“The fix means that we’ve tuned Skype’s P2P core…”
What does this mean exactly? Is Skype silently updating client software without the users knowing? I’ve not read the EULA or privacy statements, but it would certainly not reinforce the ‘No spyware / No adware’ badge they feature on their site.
If the problem is not on the client software, but on ‘root node’ software, controlled directly by Skype, it means the network is not as robust or self-healing as they would like us to believe.
Either way, not good news, more in-depth explanations are required to restore faith.
5:24 AM PT
[...] pushes out software updates. Skype says the bug responsible is fixed, but GigaOm and others weren’t convinced, forcing Skype to offer more and more elaborate explanations via Mashable). Skype finally [...]
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