EDIT: August 21, 2007 The Microsoft connection clarified
1. Are we blaming Microsoft for what happened?
We don’t blame anyone but ourselves...
2. What was different about this set of Microsoft update patches?
In short – there was nothing different about this set of Microsoft patches...
3. How come previous Microsoft update patches didn’t cause disruption?
That’s because the update patches were not the cause of the disruption...
Thank you for being honest about the disruption and not passing the blame to "someone else", Skype.
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What happened on August 16
On Thursday, 16th August 2007, the Skype peer-to-peer network became unstable and suffered a critical disruption. 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.
Normally Skype’s peer-to-peer network has an inbuilt ability to self-heal, however, this event revealed a previously unseen software bug within the network resource allocation algorithm which prevented the self-healing function from working quickly. Regrettably, as a result of this disruption, Skype was unavailable to the majority of its users for approximately two days.
The issue has now been identified explicitly within Skype. We can confirm categorically that no malicious activities were attributed or that our users’ security was not, at any point, at risk.
I don't have an
LOL that's big enough for that explanation. If their supposition is true, than why didn't previous updates from Microsoft cause this issue before ?
There's no way in heck that all of the systems connected to Skype downloaded, installed updates, and then rebooted at the same time.
NO WAY !!!!
I'm not that familiar with Skype's software but, ANY software one installs that insists on running when Windows starts up via it's Duhfault settings, is a major PITA.
There's also security implications to consider. There have been known exploits and vulnerabilities in IM/Chat Clients that are resolved when said issuer of such Clients either patch them or upgrade them. Do you really want a vulnerable Client to be connecting to the internet even though it may have a critical vulnerability for which a newly issued exploit is aimed at ?
If I want to run your software, I very well know how to start it, thank you.
Frankly, I do not recall the latest version of Skype that I installed having that as a Duhfault setting. If it did, it was disabled as soon as it was installed, trust me.
Even if Skype's lame excuse were possible ... then I say GOOD.
Serves you right for having your software run on boot because you were the ones who chose that invasive behavior, not Microsoft.