One of the world’s largest Internet phone companies, Skype experienced a two-day outage, apparently due to a bug in the Skype Windows version. The Internet phone company has posted details on its blog explaining what caused the service to be unavailable for millions of Skype users prior to Christmas.
Server overloads and a bug in the Skype Windows version combined to create a set of problems that knocked out much of the network supporting the phone service. Skype is currently trying to assess how its network is built in order to prevent the problem from reoccurring.
According to Lars Rabbe, chief information officer at the Internet phone company, the problems started on Dec. 22, when some of Skype’s servers that handle instant messaging started to get overloaded. Consequently, the responses they sent to Windows machines running Skype were delayed, but in one Skype Windows version, a bug combined with this delay caused the program to crash. Rabble added that about 50 percent of all Skype users were running the buggy 5.0.0.152 Skype Windows version of the software.
The “confluence of events”, noted Rabbe, resulted in Skype being offline for about 24 hours, while engineers struggled to bring the service back to life. To ensure this outage will not be an issue again, Rabble said the phone company would look at its update policy and consider whether it should automatically move Skype users to newer versions of its software. A bug-free Skype Windows version already exists, however it is not automatically given to Skype users.
Moreover, the Internet phone company also said it would assess its network to improve capacity and get on with an investment program that would boost this resilience. Following the outage, Skype has offered compensation to users: pre-pay customers will receive vouchers, while subscribers will benefit from a week of free service.
Source:-http://www.staho.com/a-skype-windows-software-bug-and-server-overloads-caused-the-internet-phone-companys-service-outage/209891/
