A bit old now but worth the read! (sometime before X-mas 2010)
The top dude at Skype, Robert Bates (CEO) posted a vlog on YT expressing how the team had been working on fixing the downtime three days before Christmas; their solution is to create "mega supernodes" (like phone directories for their Voip Services). In the UK, the Guardian.co.uk (Tech pages) posted an article on the many interrogatives behind this uncool event. Robert (Mr Skype) says: " it was not a malicious attack" Don´t yo think he look kind of tired. He probably did not sleep for days or simply he is not the "chatting type."
I am sure you all know what Skype is about but for those that do not know; it is a online service that helps people stay connected through many different services; online video conferencing,online telephone calling system, IM service and lots of other bla,blas that if you are reading post all this will probably already be second nature to you.
What is a supernode?
For us simple minds they are kind of phone directories for the Voip Service. Here on Disruptive telephony it explains how Skype uses its supernodes. Have a look because it has great visual graphs explaining how Skype actually works to connect the users to its service and servers. I feel I have learnt something thanks to Dan York.
Guys, any computer hosted on a network that is behind a network address translator (NAT) device or restrictive firewall will disable supernode functionality. Just take a look at the previous link on NAT´s but to simplify matter. Your internet connection is been abled by a cable " "MODEM" the service provide´s system ( Orange, Vodafone, TMobile) assigns a Internet IP address (long number like 192.58.00) to the router through a cable MODEM the NAT t ( the network translator) inside the router (the box where all the magic takes place translates that IP address information int bags ( packets) of data directly from the internet to your IP adress given to your computer that is connected to the internet.
take a look at The Universtity of Waterloo in Canada has a great link on disabiling supernodes on Skype. If you are interested. Here is what Skype has to say about its security.
Funny but on the day that Skype had its downtime all my other Voip services from other software failed too! This was not exclusively a problem to Skype. It was a difficult day as I couldn´t really call anyone. TG I also uns messenger though I do not really like it so much!
On a final note Skype is a peer-to-peer communication system
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