Skype has been intermittantly unavailable for many users today and the online icon is currently a grey “Trying to connect” status for me. It didn’t take Skype long to notice that the number of online users was falling and when investigating found that many of their Supernodes were taken offline by a problem affecting some versions of Skype.
Skype relies on a network of computers and phones to keep things running and some of these are what Skype call Supernodes. When you try to talk to someone on Skype your computer will look for a Supernode to figure out how to connect to them. Skype are now creating what they call “mega-supernodes” which will take several hours at which point things should return to normal.
In the mean time if you’re unable to use Skype don’t worry – it’s not your computer that’s at fault, it’s just that Skypes distributed network has failed.
24 Responses
Cool thanks for the update I noticed mine not working and googled it and this was the first thing that popped up.
I only went and reconfigured my routers to find out what was going on. Bah. Humbug.
On the bright side I have a new shiny router coming for Christmas as a result.
Thanks for this info, Chris
Dammit! My partner is about to be away again for Xmas and is meant to be saying farewell and merry Christmas via Skype. It is our favourite mode of communication when he is with his family. I hope this is fixed before he leaves today… 🙁
Thanks for the info. I nearly got into a fight with my partner as I was about to accuse her of sabotaging my Skype because she was surfing too much.
We’re friends again…
Best wishes,
Dirk
I was unable to sign into Skype when I tried just after 5pm, I also kept getting the “Trying to connect”. Cheers for the explanation.
16:25 cst Skype just came back up. Thanks for your post.
16:27 now off again.
It’s down again 🙁 When will they fix it?
Oh crap, I’m using Skype 2-3 times a week and it just had to happen now. 🙁
Thanks, was freaking out. Use my Skype phone number to job hunt.
It’s still not up for me in New Zealand.
Well I blamed it on the overhead phone lines and the snow on them, so good to know it was not,
We soon get to rely on this technocom facility and miss it when it dives.
Good to know it is not terminal.
Hi,
Thanks for the updates…please keep them coming everyone!
I’m located currently in South East Asia (Beijing time zone)…it’s currently Thursday, 12/23, at 08:37 AM local time and Skype is still dead!!
I use it for my business and ALL my students / contacts are STILL offline! I hope it will be back up soon – if it’s related to a version update, why don’t they just PULL it!
Merry Christmas all!
Still down man unacceptable.
Still down for me too and I unfortunately had to say my farewells to my loved one, via a different medium which lags terribly.
Every now and then, the little icon does turn green but usually within one minute, the icon spins again.
I am in England and the time is now 04:24am, for those who are looking for this information. C’mon Skype, we expect better than this from such a well known “brand”.
Hi all,
Still down in Asia…it’s currently Thursday, December 23rd, 2:10PM local time (06:10 GMT, 01:10 AM Eastern Standard Time, U.S.). It’s been up a few time briefly, but NOT usable.
I REALLY hope they get their act together soon!!
Merry Christmas everyone!
Hello,
Still down in Asia (Thursday, 12/23, at 03:38AM EST)…has popped up a few times, but still unusable when it does! I hope you will all continue to send updates….SKYPE isn’t updating us very much. I KNOW it’s a free’ service, but this is ridiculous!
Still down in Central Europe (10:00PM local time). Well, there are us who pay for Skype out service, I know it’s cheap, but still. Christmas is getting near and I’ve got a feeling it’s gonna be expensive one.
Skype service is getting down day by day.They should do something to improve their quality
Hi again….
It’s currently Thursday, December 23rd, 8:25PM local (China – South East Asia) Time / 12:25PM GMT. Skype is once again down….haven’t been able to use it, even to send a message, all day.
I TRULY hope they get things together SOON!
Hi all…
It appears that Skype is finally back up…fingers crossed…its currently 2:48PM GMT…..
Merry Christmas!
I first noticed the downtime yesterday afternoon. It’s been intermittent ever since. I actually ended up Googling to see if others were experiencing the problem.
What’s strange is my colleague opposite me here in the office who is running a Mac has not had an issue at all. Must be different services hosting the Mac version of the application.
This is the first major outage that I have experienced using Skype. It must be giving them a lot of headaches at this time of year…