Sunspots to blame for
lack of newsbf updates
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September 25, 2011 |
By Mike Weland
Publisher
The usual daily updates to this website came to
a screeching halt about a week and a half ago
when attempts to contect with our web host
failed. After checking with the host, going
through our computer system, checking routers
and other hardware, even undoing some recent
Windows updates to see if they may have been the
cause, it turns out to be something beyond
earthly control ... sunspots.
Having tried everything I know, I finally called
our Internet service provider, Hughes Net, and
learned that the recent spike in sunspot
activity has slowed the system and limited what
subscribers can do on line, including updating
high-bandwidth web sites, such as
www.newsbf.com.
While many Boundary County Internet users enjoy
other forms of connectivity, including DSL
provided by Frontier or wireless connection
provided by businesses including E.L. Internet
Northwest, Meadow Creek Computer Works or
NIdao.Net, none of those services reach where we
are on Clifty View Road, surrounded by hills and
mountains ... well away from line-of-site towers
and far away from the areas being reached by
Frontier's optic cable expansion. The only was
we have of connecting, thus far, is by
satellite.
Not that we haven't tried.
Eric Lederhos and his crew at E.L. Internet
Northwest have made several visits to our home
through the summer to see if there's anything
they can do to get us a reliable signal, trying
several different types of receivers stretched
to the height limits they can reach, to no
avail. We happen to live in a "black hole" where
signals just don't reach.
The only way I can upload now is to store the
information on a thumb drive and connect through
a computer with an earth-based signal, which
takes a drive to town.
It's unknown how long the sunspot activity will
continue to interfere with our ability to
maintain newsbf in a timely manner, but we are
using other means, including
Facebook and our
e-mail alert service, to keep
readers posted on important breaking news. |
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