Skype still down for some users, explains widespread outage

Angry Skype users unable to connect to the service for much of the day managed to crash Twitter earlier in their fervor to either research or complain about the outage.

Skype itself has also been using the microblogging service to keep users abreast of the situation and disseminate updates about the progress of service restoration. In an explanation contained in a link tweeted by the official Skype Twitter account, the company said the outage wasn’t “typical or expected,” and described how it occurred:

Skype isn’t a network like a conventional phone or IM network – instead, it relies on millions of individual connections between computers and phones to keep things up and running. Some of these computers are what we call ‘supernodes’ – they act a bit like phone directories for Skype. If you want to talk to someone, and your Skype app can’t find them immediately (for example, because they’re connecting from a different location or from a different device) your computer or phone will first try to find a supernode to figure out how to reach them.

Have your business or pre-holiday communications been upset by the temporary loss of Skype? You can keep tabs on the service via their now fairly frequent Twitter updates on the situation.