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Skype down! — Parallax Forums

Skype down!

msrobotsmsrobots Posts: 3,709
in General Discussion
Worldwide problems with Skype. User can not login, no phone calls, but texting is still working.

http://heartbeat.skype.com/2015/09/skype_presence_issues.html

Enjoy!

Mike

Comments

  • Heater.Heater. Posts: 21,230
    Catastrophe, spying on everybody is down for a bit :)

  • Phil Pilgrim (PhiPi)Phil Pilgrim (PhiPi) Posts: 23,514
    I let my Skype account go after getting too many texts from Chinese electronics manufacturers wanting to engage me in conversation.

    -Phil
  • msrobotsmsrobots Posts: 3,709
    Since I am working from home Skype is my primary phone. There is still a landline in existence, but all my contacts in US and Europe call either Skype direct or a landline number in the US or a land line number in Berlin, Germany, both connect to my computer running Skype. Both numbers cost me $50 a year.

    Not $50 a moth like my cell phone did. The rare times I am not at home I prefer to be not reachable, since I am busy doing something anyways, else I would be at home. So I do not own a cell phone anymore. Quite relaxing, over all.

    Usually German Phone contracts do not charge for land lines, just calls to cell phones get charged. And in the opposite to the US just the guy initiating the phone call, not both parties.

    So most of my contacts in Germany can call me here in the US charge free, even for hours by calling the German Landline...

    Sadly one of my ex wife's got hold of that Berlin Number 12 years after the divorce. And keeps calling me since weeks every time she is bored. Because its free!

    Well - every good thing has bad sides also.

    Anyways Skype is up and running again.

    Enjoy!

    Mike
  • potatoheadpotatohead Posts: 10,261
    Bummer. I actually use the Smile out of SKYPE, and I don't care about or if there is spying.

  • Buck RogersBuck Rogers Posts: 2,185
    potatohead wrote: »
    Bummer. I actually use the Smile out of SKYPE, and I don't care about or if there is spying.

    Hello!
    Don't worry about.
    Skype is encrypted, and the encryption is on a par with the one behind the SSH2 protocols. The original designers chose to base theirs on a pattern of prime numbers, which are selected based on the day of the week as a number. So.... the only one who understands you is who're speaking with, plus its bounced across several hundred thousand users to the person you're speaking with.

    The NSA gave up on it, and informed the UK that they should do the same. Europe soon followed. Sadly the Chinese blocked it, because they can't figure it out. But there's a way around that too.
  • Heater.Heater. Posts: 21,230
    Buck Rogers,

    Yes Skype is encrypted. No it's not secure at all. As demonstrated here: http://arstechnica.com/security/2013/05/think-your-skype-messages-get-end-to-end-encryption-think-again/

    With my tin foil hat on I could speculate that:

    1) The NSA may well have given up trying to break skype encryption. But then they don't need to break it, just tap in at Microsoft.

    2) Sure tell the world "We can't break it, give up". Why give away an advantage like that?
  • LeonLeon Posts: 7,620
    edited 2015-09-22 12:30
    I'm on the committee of the local amateur radio club, and we use Skype for our monthly committee meetings. It usually works very well.

    I just tried running it. It updated itself and I was then able to log in. Self test worked OK. They seem to have fixed it.
  • RDL2004RDL2004 Posts: 2,554
    Nothing that is part of Microsoft is safe or secure. If you use any of their services they are going to access and use your personal information if they can benefit from it. That's fine if you don't care.
  • TorTor Posts: 2,010
    edited 2015-09-23 01:20
    No update needed, fortunately. I keep my Skype installation at the oldest possible version which still works (that is, hasn't been forcibly blocked by MS) because Skype gets worse with every iteration.
    Apparently it was one of their servers which failed and caused the trouble. Skype started working for me after a while.
    Sadly I think Skype moved away from the peer-to-peer setup they used initially, if it changed with Ebay or with MS as owners I don't know.
    Edit. Heater's link makes that clear. MS changed everything.
    since Skype was acquired by Microsoft, the network running the service has been drastically overhauled from its design of the preceding decade. Gone are the peer-to-peer "supernodes" made up of users with sufficient amounts of bandwidth and processing power; in their place are some 10,000 Linux machines hosted by Microsoft. In short, the decentralization that had been one of Skype's hallmarks was replaced with a much more centralized network. It stands to reason that messages traveling over centralized networks may be easier to monitor.

  • Buck RogersBuck Rogers Posts: 2,185
    Tor wrote: »
    No update needed, fortunately. I keep my Skype installation at the oldest possible version which still works (that is, hasn't been forcibly blocked by MS) because Skype gets worse with every iteration.
    Apparently it was one of their servers which failed and caused the trouble. Skype started working for me after a while.
    Sadly I think Skype moved away from the peer-to-peer setup they used initially, if it changed with Ebay or with MS as owners I don't know.
    Edit. Heater's link makes that clear. MS changed everything.
    since Skype was acquired by Microsoft, the network running the service has been drastically overhauled from its design of the preceding decade. Gone are the peer-to-peer "supernodes" made up of users with sufficient amounts of bandwidth and processing power; in their place are some 10,000 Linux machines hosted by Microsoft. In short, the decentralization that had been one of Skype's hallmarks was replaced with a much more centralized network. It stands to reason that messages traveling over centralized networks may be easier to monitor.

    Hello!
    Let me put it to all of you this way. The NSA just doesn't give two hoots about anything going on inside our country. Its against their charter.

    As for why they were trying to figure out what cell phones say to each other, it ended.

    Microsoft is just all thumbs. Take a look at the linked story on that as applies to a journalist temporarily loosing his paid-for account with them, because someone goofed.
  • RDL2004RDL2004 Posts: 2,554
    edited 2015-09-23 03:35
    The job of the NSA is protection of the government's IT and communications networks. There are very few places in the world where they are more active than in this country.
  • Buck RogersBuck Rogers Posts: 2,185
    RDL2004 wrote: »
    The job of the NSA is protection of the government's IT and communications networks. There are very few places in the world where they are more active than in this country.

    You do pose an interesting one, but I'm not touching it.
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