Skype blames "super nodes" for massive system failure

VoIP provider Skype is all in all struggling to get its business back to normal afterwards a service black-out caused disruption for millions of users around the world.

The company

According to the company, the crash stemmed from a problem with the "super nodes" on its network and Skype alluded to software as the root cause of the failure.

"Skype isn't 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 'super nodes' - they act a bit like phone directories for Skype," the company said in a statement.

The company said it

The company said it was creating new super nodes as quickly as possible, nevertheless some features, just as group video calling, would take longer to repair than others.

According to Skype, the issue did not impact enterprise products just as Skype Connect and Skype Manager, nevertheless the outage renewed questions over the wisdom of relying on internet telephony alone.