Skype service may be out till Friday

SAN FRANCISCO - The leading Voice over Internet Protocol service, Skype was down yesterday for most time with users unable to log into their accounts. However the eBay subsidiary refuted rumors of a software crash or even a cyber attack saying the service will be back to normal within 12 to 24 hours.

"Our engineering team has determined that it's a software issue. We expect this to be resolved within 12 to 24 hours. Meanwhile, you can simply leave your Skype client running and as soon as the issue is resolved, you will be logged in. We apologize for the inconvenience," the service said in a posting on its support forum.

The company also said that it had disabled downloads on the service for sometime and would resume the same as quickly as possible.

Luxembourg-based Skype added that it had identified the problem plaguing its system, but was unable to find why this issue had caused network failure. Skype executives said that some errors in the Internet "backbone" might have resulted in the crash, but were not ready to commit to the same.

Skype service has proved popular throughout the world mainly because it allows users to talk for free with other Skype members on their computers. However Skype users will need to pay in order to call other users' phones.

Kurt Sauer, Skype's chief security office assured users that the problem would be sorted out soon. "We want to get it fixed quickly and ensure that we are what we always said we were — a highly reliable, resistant network," he added.

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