Tuesday, August 21, 2007

Apparently it's Windows fault!

Last August, 16th, Skype users must have noticed that they couldn't connect to the network and perform phone calls. For two days the network was completely unstable and people were starting to think that there was some kind of attack to the Skype infrastructure.

Well, yesterday Skype Inc.'s boss has issued a statement where he "blames" the Windows Update Service for this catastrophic failure. How? Easy: apparently it was in this same day that Windows Update "suggested" the update of some Windows patches. When millions of Windows users performed the necessary updates and restarted their computers (as most of them have the option of starting Skype along with Windows), the Skype network was flooded with millions and millions of log-in requests, thus causing a chain reaction that resulted on the total breakdown of the Skype network.

Although I'm not a big fan of Windows and the fact that I don't particularly like the updating process of Windows, I have to admit that this "blaming" process from Skype towards Microsoft is quite far-fetched. First, because most people don't perform the updates as soon as they are available and second, because not everyone restarts the computer right after the updates. You'd need a huge coincidence for all Windows users to actually perform these two steps at the same time.

Skype has to learn the lesson and improve its infrastructure instead of blaming others for their mistakes.

Source: Skype

No comments: