Sunspots to blame for lack of ne

Sunspots to blame for lack of newsbf updates

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.