Skype: Microsoft zombie network launched DoS attack

A funny image I thought to spice up my blog.

Rumours keep surfacing, making me think that the last (longer) tail of the Skype downtime story has not really surfaced, has it ?

Or are we just looking here at the usual blog and media-hype ? Maybe a bit of both. Read this as plucked from Good morning Silicon Valley By JOHN MURRELL :

" After a postmortem on the meltdown that left millions of Skype users disconnected for two days last week (see "You fool, I said we wanted to see more SkypeOut headlines" and "Sure hope my probation officer buys this 'deficient algorithm' excuse"), representatives of the Internet telephony company reaffirmed that the system did not fail because of an attack by malicious software -- unless you count Windows.

According to the company blog, "The disruption was triggered by a massive restart of our users' computers across the globe within a very short timeframe as they re-booted after receiving a routine set of patches through Windows Update. The high number of restarts affected Skype's network resources. This caused a flood of log-in requests, which, combined with the lack of peer-to-peer network resources, prompted a chain reaction that had a critical impact." The surge was so strong it herniated a previously unknown weak spot in the network resource allocation algorithm, preventing the self-healing system of the peer-to-peer network from working. Skype reassured users that this particular barn door is now closed, and added, a little defensively, "We would like to point out that very few technologies or communications networks today are guaranteed to operate without interruptions."

True enough, but what about interruptions that result from a scheduled event that has been occurring once a month for three years now? Each Patch Tuesday, Microsoft sends out its latest batch of fixes, and the millions of Windows machines dutifully download and reboot. What was different in this case? That's just one of the issues that still need to be addressed if Skype and its owner, eBay, hope to rebuild trust. Comment on this post "

Related topics :

Skype blames Microsoft patch for outage
Skype Blames Microsoft Patch Tuesday for Outage
Microsoft Updates Triggered Skype Service Outage
Skype: Microsoft Update Took Us Down
Does Skype's Windows update story fly?
Skype Users Don't Buy Outage Explanation
Skype outage due to Microsoft update… oh, and a software bug
Skype Gets Lessons from Murphy
Windows breaks Skype (or lessons in P2P networking)

My take : what ever is (entirely) true (or not) about the above observations, speculations and interpretations… I did use MSN Messenger VoIP functionality during the the Skype Outage. I admit it, I am guilty as charged (hehehe), but I only used Windows Live Messenger for about 1 hour and as a backup solution it worked perfect. And so did www.gizmoproject.com And this is exactly the way how you should have your IM system aligned, if one does not work, then be ready to hop to the other one, so you don't pay for the downtime caused by others in this Case : Skype and Microsoft, who will probably be fighting a Media and Blog battle now.

So there you have it : MSN Messenger and Gizmoproject are my backup-solution running in the background. And if really needed I will use my good old PSTN phone for a reliable phone-call. It always works and if not inside the home, I got a phone-booth outside and until all those VoIP-boys don't have that, they will still be beaten by the big telecoms… Who do have a huge reliable (dumb, but so what) network.