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Can anyone believe the explanation for the massive Skype outage last week? There are more holes in it than a Tetley’s teabag! Either their explanation is incomplete or there is more to the story than is being revealed. The explanation is being questioned all over the place!!!

Their management is blaming the Microsoft August Updates for a massive restart of computers which caused chaos on the Skype network. That being the case, why haven’t things broken on previous Patch Tuesdays - after all we get them ever single month! 

Technorati Tags: Microsoft, Microsoft Update, outage, Skype, VOIP

There also appears to be a new version of Skype (v3.5.0.214) out today. Probably wise to go download it and get it installed.  It may well contain fixes for the problem we’ve just experienced or at the very least, some code changes to ensure this type of problem can be handled more elegantly in the future.

Go get it HERE.

Technorati Tags: Skype

Skype appears to be back and we seem to be staying logged in - fingers duly crossed, along with the toes and anything else we can find to cross in the hope it stays that way! Even managed to make a Skype Echo Test call without issue. The Skype application is reporting 4.5 million users logged in so it would appear things are now fixed for the vast majority of users.

Thanks to everyone who left a comment on our earlier outage post. Nice to know there are so many people out there who care enough to comment. Hope you are all back up and running now as well.

It is going to be interesting to hear what really happened at some point! Here’s hoping that Skype also do some good PR, maybe give all us premium customers some free SkypeOut credits or something similar.  

We’re betting that other VOIP services, such as Gizmo, gain a lot of new users over the next few days.

Update:

Just checked and there are only 1 million users online. Perhaps “all is not well” with the Skype network just yet! However, it looks to be good again for us, well so far so good!

… and another:

Only about 10 minutes since the previous update and we’ve got nearly six millions user online now. Glad to see things are indeed improving this time.

Technorati Tags: echo test, Gizmo, Skype, SkypeOut

First casualty has been reported from this month’s Microsoft Updates. A Vista Premium install of a few weeks is starting to present with start-up errors. When did this start? Yes, you’ve guessed correct, it was the Wednesday morning after the Microsoft updates had flowed down.

Looks like a repair install will be required to fix things.

Technorati Tags: Microsoft, startup error, Vista, Windows

Perhaps this is why Skype isn’t working!

Breaking News: All Online Data Lost After Internet Crash

Okay, this is a spoof, but since it is a Friday we thought you’d like something to get you in the weekend mood. Leave a comment if you liked it.

Technorati Tags: funny, humor, humour, Internet, WebCrash

Skype users may have noticed a login problem currently affecting the network. According to the updates being issued on the Skype website and status webpage, the problem should be resolved soon!

The Security Matters blog is reporting a proof of concept (PoC) that has been posted which allows denial of service (DOS) attacks on Skype. Maybe someone has taken the PoC and turned it into a real attack on the Skype system thereby bringing it to its knees. However, a Skype response denies this to be the case, instead blaming some bad programming on their part. The truth is likely to come out in the wash!

There is an important lesson in this for everyone… don’t rely on one form of communications medium. Many organisation may have or are looking at going the voice over IP (VOIP) route and this incident should show how badly an outage could affect you. It is always worth having some form of landline or mobile phone still available for use and in most cases is essential for the correct routing of emergency calls to the emergency services located in your area.

Technorati Tags: denial of service, DOS, emergency, login problems, PoC, proof of concept, Skype, VOIP

For those of you who find emails getting stuck in the new Windows Mail, you may find this “Windows Mail Problem” page useful. We certainly did when an almost new Vista machine decided to corrupt the mail database! There are also other problems being highlighted along with suggestions for workarounds and fixes.

Looks like Microsoft have another problem to fix going by the number of people complaining about the issue on the Microsoft Windows Mail public discussion group and the Internet in general!

Technorati Tags: Microsoft, stuck email, Vista, Windows, Windows Mail

A potential customer in the North of Fife just phoned inquiring about computer support. They asked how much it would be to fix a non-bootable computer. But what made it unbootable? Well the conversation went along the lines of: 

“Last night I was doing some housekeeping and decided to delete the ntldr file.”

This file is critical to the Windows boot process and deleting it will turn your computer into a big paperweight! The fix is to restore the file from the Windows CD.

Moral of the story:

Don’t delete files you don’t recognise without understanding the possible repercussions!

 Roundtrip Solutions offers a computer spring cleaning service for all of you who are fearful of doing it yourself. Please contact us for an appointment.

Technorati Tags: computer support, Fife, fix, IT, ntldr, support, unbootable computer, Windows