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Solar Flares Knock HughesNet Satellite Offline
Service Offline Most of Tuesday...
Several users in our forums note that the recent round of solar flares managed to knock Hughesnet's Spaceway 3 satellite offline for a large chunk of yesterday. The outage primarily impacted the HughesNet SPACEWAY HN9000 service, which is predominately used for enterprise connectivity. Users in our forums note that the service had been offline since around 11 PM (EST) Monday night, but has now returned for most of the company's customers. HughesNet has confirmed that the outage was due to a "unplanned" solar storm.
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Chaplain
So It Goes
Premium Member
join:2002-10-11
USA

Chaplain

Premium Member

That's one big sunspot!

»www.nasa.gov/mission_pag ··· 313.html
said by NASA :
On March 13, 2012, the sun erupted with an M7.9-class flare that peaked at 1:41 p.m. EDT. This flare was from the same active region, No. 1429, that has been producing flares and coronal mass ejections all week. That region has been moving across the face of the sun since March 2, and will soon rotate out of Earth view.
It'll be interesting to see how the increased activity of the sun will affect us in this new age where we are so dependent on technology. We get a direct hit by an emission, and it's possible power grids could be affected. I kind of have my doubts, as I'm sure there are some kind of fail-safes in place, but living on the east coast of the US doesn't make me feel super confident.

Transmaster
Don't Blame Me I Voted For Bill and Opus
join:2001-06-20
Cheyenne, WY

2 edits

Transmaster

Member

Re: That's one big sunspot!

Below is a great App for iPhone, iPad , iPod Touch which lets you monitor Solar weather continuously, satellite views of the sun etc, push notification of Solar evens. etc fascinating.

»3dsun.org/

This is an App I would gladly pay for but it is free!

SimbaSeven
I Void Warranties
join:2003-03-24
Billings, MT

SimbaSeven

Member

Re: That's one big sunspot!

No chance in that coming to Android, eh?

Transmaster
Don't Blame Me I Voted For Bill and Opus
join:2001-06-20
Cheyenne, WY

1 edit

Transmaster

Member

Re: That's one big sunspot!

Not so far but NASA has a good one for android, I have the iOS version loaded and it is very good:»play.google.com/store/ap ··· eWeather

Chaplain
So It Goes
Premium Member
join:2002-10-11
USA

Chaplain

Premium Member

Re: That's one big sunspot!

I'm getting the App. Of course, a better indication would be my phone not working and the lights going out.

sk1939
Premium Member
join:2010-10-23
Frederick, MD
ARRIS SB8200
Ubiquiti UDM-Pro
Juniper SRX320

sk1939 to Chaplain

Premium Member

to Chaplain
said by Chaplain:

living on the east coast of the US doesn't make me feel super confident.

Living along the San Andreas fault is so much better.

battleop
join:2005-09-28
00000

battleop

Member

They are lucky...

They are lucky that the bird isn't toast and that it was just a temporary outage.
tmc8080
join:2004-04-24
Brooklyn, NY

tmc8080

Member

DN?

Didn't DishNework lose a satellite not to long ago?
Obviously not dealing with a wired network has it's advantages, but having satellites "DIE" an early death is gonig to cost their insurance company bigtime.

DavePR
join:2008-06-04
Canyon Country, CA

DavePR

Member

Re: DN?

Charlie doesn't use insurance as far as I know. He's kind of famous for taking big chances and having insane luck.
tmc8080
join:2004-04-24
Brooklyn, NY

tmc8080

Member

Re: DN?

I think they did at one time have insurance, but after ONE loss, that was the end of that as it is an unmanageable risk. One day the satellite will fail and an insurance company won't be able to make up the millions to make and launch a new one. Unless you have a $200k + premium each year..

HarryDee
@lvh.com

HarryDee to DavePR

Anon

to DavePR
considering he was a professional gambler... before he got Dish Net
ShellMMG
join:2009-04-16
Grass Lake, MI

ShellMMG

Member

Wait...what?

An "unplanned" solar storm.

Seriously??

Do these guys read their type out loud before publishing?? If so, there's a serious disconnect between their ears and brain!

Last time I looked, Sol doesn't have an alert system to notify Earth when it's having a bad flare day.

Transmaster
Don't Blame Me I Voted For Bill and Opus
join:2001-06-20
Cheyenne, WY

Transmaster

Member

Re: Wait...what?

The Sun doesn't but we do have satellites that closely monitor the Sun. In this case there where 3 CME's that hit the earth in the last several days the suprise was the back to back flares.
rahvin112
join:2002-05-24
Sandy, UT

rahvin112

Member

Re: Wait...what?

So your saying it's possible to have a "Planned Solar Flare" because by using unplanned in the article they imply that there is such a thing as a planned solar flare.

So the next question is who's on this planning board that plans solar flares.

dbirdman
MVM
join:2003-07-07
usa

dbirdman

MVM

Re: Wait...what?

said by rahvin112:

So your saying it's possible to have a "Planned Solar Flare" because by using unplanned in the article they imply that there is such a thing as a planned solar flare.

The only "article" with unplanned in it is Karl's, here. It appears he skimmed some of our posts in the satellite forums and failed to note that all of the solar stuff was rebuttable conjecture.

An official Hughes rep has now said "originally it (solar) appeared to be a contributing factor but turned out it wasn't."

AuraReturn
Premium Member
join:2003-08-18
USA

AuraReturn to ShellMMG

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to ShellMMG
said by ShellMMG:

An "unplanned" solar storm.

Seriously??

Do these guys read their type out loud before publishing?? If so, there's a serious disconnect between their ears and brain!

Last time I looked, Sol doesn't have an alert system to notify Earth when it's having a bad flare day.

There is. There are satellites that monitor the sun. How did you think we got he information of an impending solar storm?
chances14
join:2010-03-03
Michigan

chances14

Member

Once again Karl fails miserably

So tell me Karl. where was this statement posted about Hughesnet confirming that the outage was due to a unplanned solar storm? once again posting assumptions and facts without any sources

Hughesnet confirmed that it was NOT solar related

dbirdman explains it well
quote:
People in this thread are pushing all sorts of illogical and unlikely solutions. All of the available evidence appears to point to issues with the ground-based network, not the satellite. That evidence includes the ability of the satellite to communicate with both control and with user modems (to take them offline). That would not be possible if the satellite had major power or alignment issues.

Other evidence: non-fatal solar issues are transient, not lasting for the time involved here. The effect of a fatal issue is, well, fatal, and would not be recoverable except by the use of a backup satellite, which doesn't exist in this case.
and the first comments on this page will give you the real answer

»community.myhughesnet.co ··· 30pm_est
25139889 (banned)
join:2011-10-25
Toledo, OH

25139889 (banned)

Member

Re: Once again Karl fails miserably

as always and nobody calls him out on it.

DavePR
join:2008-06-04
Canyon Country, CA

DavePR to chances14

Member

to chances14
Is Hughes a public company? If so they are probably downplaying the significance of forces over which they have no control, to keep the stock from falling. This is a spinoff of the company that lost a couple satellites to tin whiskers in a $5 relay.

I do not trust them.
chances14
join:2010-03-03
Michigan

chances14

Member

Re: Once again Karl fails miserably

I trust them more then I trust Karl's reporting. As I already mentioned, all the evidence points to ground based network failure. There wasn't even increased solar activity at the time of the outage. Another tidbit that Karl failed to mention

r81984
Fair and Balanced
Premium Member
join:2001-11-14
Katy, TX

r81984

Premium Member

History Channel

The history channel told me aliens did this.

RR Conductor
Ridin' the rails
Premium Member
join:2002-04-02
Redwood Valley, CA

RR Conductor

Premium Member

"Unplanned" Solar Storm?

So, they plan these things huh?