Call failures sore subject for Skype

Skype has gone through a day of turmoil as users faced dropped calls, log-in issues and website outages.

Users of the video chat program have experienced problems since 12:15pm today, with signed on callers randomly booted off and unable to sign back in, as well as others being unable to make or receive calls.

Skype's website is also experiencing issues or, according to its homepage, its server is "taking a short break." The site still offers links that allow users to download Skype though.

Skype blogger Peter Parkes offered alternative options for logging onto Skype for Windows Vista and Windows 7, Windows XP and Mac OS X, but the explanations were rather lengthy. Instead of simply clicking on the Skype desktop icon, users must complete up to 12 steps in order to reboot the program.

The Heartbeat' tab on Skype's website site offers some apologies for the inconvenience.

"Some of you may have problems signing in to Skype and making calls," it read. "We're investigating and hope to have more details to share soon."

IT PRO contacted Skype to get more details on the crash and to find out when everything would be back to normal, but the company declined to comment.

There is some speculation from users the crash could create complications for Microsoft, which recently bought Skype for $8.5 billion (5 billion).