How Not To Be A Skype / Microsoft Supernode, Updated

How Not To Be A Skype / Microsoft Supernode http://snapvoip.blogspot.com/
We have updated one of our favorite posts;  "How to be or not to be a skype supernode?" has been given a long due update to reflect the Skype 3.0 or newer capability to disable the supernode capability. You still need to go about hacking the registry.  It is simple though. Follow the link to get information as how to change your registry.

How to be or not to be a skype supernode?

Skype Outages And MAC Client Woes!

Skype http://snapvoip.blogspot.com/
Yesterday I watched a video (See Below) interview of a Game developer CEO, Jason Asbahr from Montrous . It was all about why the game developers dropped Skype for MAC 5.0 and went back to Skype for MAC 2.8. Since I use my Skype mostly on PC's and Mobile phones, I have not experienced the problem nor I knew what the real problem was. Until I read VoIP Watch that is.
The MAC client problem seem to lead to an departed exec who could not get MAC right and wanted Skype for MAC to be like windows client. Well now you know where that went. I hope Skype will come up with a new client. 'Cos I will be ditching my windows / Linux note boot to a MACbook pro with MAC OS X and windows. The current notebook will stay on my desk and run Linux only.

Then there was signing in and call receiving problems on 30th. I was not very happy but Google Voice was there to save the day, It is not as big as the Supernode Crash. In any case I stopped being a Skype supernode long time ago, ever since I started paying.

Skype Supernode Outage Post-Mortem, Mega- Supernodes Helped

#Skype Outage Post-Mortem #Mega-Supernodes helped http://snapvoip.blogspot.com/
The massive Skype failure, and the root causes have been explained by the Skype CIO on their blog. Yet I am to read a complete explanation of supernode operations. Basically Skype is running their business on the back of the users, making them supernodes, whether they like it not. I certainly did not like being a supernode a few years ago and followed Fermilab Skype usage policy, not to become a supernode and stay within the Skype EULA. It was written for older operating system and oldervesion of Skype but it is so simple, any OS or Any Skype version should work. But it is up to you to decide to become a Skype Supernode or not by following  How to be or not to be a skype supernode!

Getting back to the Skype outage, the culprit seem to be Skype client 5.0.0.152 version. These clients crashed when a bunch of support servers got overloaded. All other clients were fine, including version 4.0 and newer 5.0 versions. But it seems that about 50% of Skype users were using .152. So with this many users crashing, so did the number of supernodes, which were responsible for establishing and maintaining connections in the Skype P2P network. About 30% of supernodes were knocked off and this accounted for bringing the Skype down. The other factor was, this many .152 clients restarting their Skype clients at the same time, more or less, overloading many other support servers. Basically;

Regrettably, as a result of the confluence of events – server overload, a bug in Skype for Windows clients (version 5.0.0.152), and the decline in available supernodes – Skype’s functionality became unavailable to many of our users for approximately 24 hours.

For it's credit, Skype describes how it recovered from the failure and how Mega-Supernodes launched to recover from supernode failure helped. But now that we know Skype can do manage to run Mega-Supernodes, hope it will keep them running all over the world and save users and their networks from overloading. Otherwise people will keep on Uninstalling Skype and finding other methods to communicate.
skype via twitter

Patent Law Suit Against Skype.

#Patent #LawSuit Against #Skype http://snapvoip.blogspot.com/
Just as Skype is picking up pieces from the recent massive Skype service outage, (Perhaps leading more people are looking to uninstall Skype, what the use of it if you could not send that lovely X-MAS message.), a company Gradient Enterprises, known to be a patent troll has filled a patent infringing suit against Skype in US courts.
The trolls are basically telling that they invented the network monitoring to which USPTO in it's wisdom granted the patent this year (the patent was filed in 2004). The U.S. patent no. 7,669,207, “METHOD FOR DETECTING, REPORTING AND RESPONDING TO NETWORK NODE-LEVEL EVENTS AND A SYSTEM THEREOF” Hopefully something good will come out of this law suite, for all of us.
The skype supernode network, which we have been advising and telling "how to be or not to be a Skype Supernode", so Skype need to be a supernode and get it's lawyer gears up and fight.
via TechCrunch