Skype DOWN: Users Report Problems Logging In To Skype

Having problems using Skype? You're not alone.

Skype went down on Wednesday, affecting millions of users, according to ReadWriteWeb.

"Some of you may have problems signing in to Skype - we're investigating, and we're sorry for the disruption to your conversations," Skype tweeted from its official Twitter account at around 12PM ET.

An hour later, it admitted that the outage still had not been resolved: "Our engineers and site operations team are working non-stop to get things back to normal - thanks for your continued patience," Skype posted in a tweet.

ReadWriteWeb estimates that some 8 million users have had their conversations interrupted by Skype's downtime.

The VoIP service wrote in a statement explaining the outage:

Under normal circumstances, there are a large number of supernodes available. Unfortunately, today, many of them were taken offline by a problem affecting some versions of Skype. As Skype relies on being able to maintain contact with supernodes, it may appear offline for some of you.

What are we doing to help? Our engineers are creating new 'mega-supernodes' as fast as they can, which should gradually return things to normal. This may take a few hours, and we sincerely apologise for the disruption to your conversations. Some features, like group video calling, may take longer to return to normal.

You can check Skype's status by following @Skype on Twitter or via the website DownForEveryoneOrJustMe.com.

UPDATE: Skype said via Twitter, "Skype is now gradually returning to normal – we expect it may take several hours for everyone to be able to sign in again, however."

Comments

[dhinds]

06:48 PM on 12/25/2010

My VoIP provider is www.iconnecthere.com and I've had no problems. (Check their rates).

[Rapieress]

02:41 PM on 12/25/2010

I am STILL down and I used this number for some job interview call-backs I am expecting this week. There is never a way to contact Skype directly so you are out in this vast wilderness alone without water and Skype says, "Too bad. Someone may eventually find you. . ." I need to find a different service. . . one that actually wants to talk with users.

[Marie Bailay]

08:39 PM on 12/22/2010

If you want a Skype alternative (at least for video calls and chat), use http://www.FaceFlow.com, very easy and free even for group video calls... It's in Beta still but it works well right now and very promising. You can also learn more there : http://www.faceflow.com/skype-alternative

[Bill Ulrich]

05:41 PM on 12/22/2010

My god, they're replacing the Supernodes with Mega-Supernodes? That is so 1990s ... don't they know that Ultra-Mega-Supernodes are where it's at these days?

[Patrick Maynes]

04:03 PM on 12/22/2010

well there's all ways ekiga

[Andreas Moser]

03:18 PM on 12/22/2010

Well, at least I know now that the problem wasn't that I had forgotten my password.