Skype Unusable For Anyone Else?

[Veazer]

Skype has suddenly become unusable on my connection. Mostly, there is a massive delay of 10-15 seconds that was never there before but there are also some weird issues with the persons voice changing tempo.

Skype used to be able to maintain reasonable quality even when the connection was less than ideal, but now the opposite is occuring. Even when speeds are good skype suffers.

A few preliminary tests with tracert don't show anything too unusual. Anyone else having any problems?

[Farma]

I’d been using it for a year without problems until a month ago. Overseas ADSL to Thailand TOT ADSL.

Now it’s impossible to get a clear steady line. It keeps dropping, broken and delayed voice or failing to connect.

Friends using it between the Middle East to the UK have noticed the same.

I don’t know if their observations are related but they mentioned it goes bad once there are 7.5 Million or more users online (which is always nowadays).

[chuchok]

I have also noticed a slide in the quality of service.

[higgy88]

I have not been having any problems and I have adsl 256/128 from Maxnet. I talked to my mother on her computer the day before yesterday and she still has dial up, and I talked to my sister's mobile phone in the US yesterday, but only for a couple of minutes. Do you have the latest version 3.2.0.163, and/or do you have the skype video activated? I do not and have never used video.

[Veazer]

I have not been having any problems and I have adsl 256/128 from Maxnet. I talked to my mother on her computer the day before yesterday and she still has dial up, and I talked to my sister's mobile phone in the US yesterday, but only for a couple of minutes. Do you have the latest version 3.2.0.163, and/or do you have the skype video activated? I do not and have never used video.

I've got 3.2.0.163 but I don't have video activated. I've tried the 3.5 beta as well.

Maybe I should go back to maxnet, True is noticeably worse anyway.

[higgy88]

Any correlation do you think between trying out their beta and having problems? I've been burned on trying betas on other programs and will never do that again. I've been using skype since my dial-up days and it's always been pretty good, although it has gotten quite a bit bloated since version 2.

edit. BTW I have never seen 7.5 million users. Right now it shows 5.6 which is pretty much usual.

Edited June 28, 2007 by higgy88

[Farma]

edit. BTW I have never seen 7.5 million users. Right now it shows 5.6 which is pretty much usual.

Check again tonight when Europe comes online. 8+ million is normal.

[meadish_sweetball]

Not surprised.

Zennström has left the ship and some US corporation took over = higher prices, more money spent on bullshitting users, attempts at upselling hot air, creating cutesy emoticons and attractive skins bloating the program instead of improving the actual quality of service.

[Old Man River]

BTW I have never seen 7.5 million users. Right now it shows 5.6 which is pretty much usual.

9.3 million on Monday evening.

[higgy88]

Sorry there Farma, but when my kids come home from school the computer goes off and stays off They only get to play their games on weekends. So I won't be checking tonight but I certainly believe you. I use it between 9am and noon to talk to people in the US. Maybe that's why I haven't had any problems. Lucky me. And Meadish, I completely agree. I haven't really seen any improvement in sound quality since version 1.5 and it is now more than a 20 MB download. I would probably consider changing, but I gave them 10 euro for skype out about 2 years ago and I am less than half way through that.

[Veazer]

Any correlation do you think between trying out their beta and having problems? I've been burned on trying betas on other programs and will never do that again. I've been using skype since my dial-up days and it's always been pretty good, although it has gotten quite a bit bloated since version 2...

No correlation, the problem occurred before trying the beta. The beta was installed just to see if it might fix the problem, it didn't. It behaves as if skype traffic has been intentionally given low priority, very annoying. I wonder if there's any testing software that mimicks skype for troubleshooting purposes. I've got plenty of VoIP testing stuff but it's all for SIP.

[higgy88]

Are you having the same problems as Farma, and do you think there may be a correlation with how many people are online at the time, as he has suggested? Do you use it at their peak times when there are 8-9 million people online or when there are 5-6 million like when I do, and are the problems the same for both computer to computer calls as well as computer to land/mobile phone calls? Also, I am using the Maxnet home package, which specifically says that it doesn't support V0IP or torrents, but I am also lucky in that I live in Lamphun where I don't think there are a lot of people sharing the same adsl line at the same time so I think the contention ratios are pretty low for me. Maybe it is a problem with your True ISP. which means there isn't much you can do about it except wait them out and hope they fix their problems . Sorry I'm not much help to you. I just wanted to say that don't have any problems using skype.

[Veazer]

Are you having the same problems as Farma, and do you think there may be a correlation with how many people are online at the time, as he has suggested? Do you use it at their peak times when there are 8-9 million people online or when there are 5-6 million like when I do, ...

Skype calls are peer-to-peer, they're not routed through the skype servers. IIRC the servers are only used to maintain a db of who's online, profiles, etc. The number of concurrent Skype users shouldn't affect quality.

Maybe I'll head south to Lamphun and take advantage of that uncongested internet.

[eek]

After trying endlessly to get a decent line with Skype earlier today for an important call i gave up and began to hunt for alternatives.

After trying out a few, i found www.gizmoproject.com. Absolutely love it. Very simple to set up and easy to credit. Similar set up to Skype, but got a clear line, unlike the weird robot sounding voices and delayed speech i was having with Skype.

I recommend it as a back up to Skype or (as i am considering) a complete alternative.