It appears that Skype is down. The company just tweeted:

Some of you may have problems signing in to Skype and making calls. We’re investigating and hope to have more details to share soon.”

According to The Next Web, Windows users seemed to be the only ones affected initially, but now Linux and Mac clients too. By simply visiting your website you’ll also note that it is loading extremely slowly, at times spitting out the error message: “Hi – Our server has taken a short break.”

Skype has just released how to potential fix the issue (more detailed here):

Windows Vista and Windows 7
1. Close Skype.
a. Right-click the Skype icon in the system tray (at the bottom right of the screen)
b. Choose Quit.
2. Ensure that “Show hidden files and folders” is switched on.
a. Click Start, type run and press Enter.
b. Type control folders and click OK.
c. Select the View tab and ensure relevant entry is enabled.
3. Locate the shared.xml file.
a. Click Start, type run and press Enter.
b. Type %appdata%skype and click OK.
c. Delete the shared.xml file.
4. Restart Skype. The shared.xml file will be recreated.

Windows XP
1. Close Skype.
a. Right-click the Skype icon in the system tray (at the bottom right of the screen)
b. Choose Quit.
2. Ensure that “Show hidden files and folders” is switched on.
a. Click Start and then Run…
b. Type control folders and click OK.
c. Select the View tab and ensure relevant entry is enabled.
3. Locate the shared.xml file.
a. Click Start and then Run…
b. Type %appdata%skype and click OK.
c. Delete the shared.xml file.
4. Restart Skype. The shared.xml file will be recreated.

Mac OS X
1. Quit Skype.
2. Go to the folder ~/Library/Application Support/Skype/
3. Delete the file shared.xml (it will be recreated once you open Skype again, this is fine).
4. Start Skype.

Please note that the ~ sign means your home folder. You can find your home folder by opening Finder and selecting Go > Home from the menu bar or pressing Command (Apple), Shift and H keys at the same time.

Why is Skype down? Most believe it is migrating its servers to Microsoft, which just acquired the company for a whopping $8.5 billion.