Did Solar Flares Cause Yesterday's Network Outages ?

[BC Coyote]

Some say they did, others say they didn't......
Read more !
https://watchers.news/2024/02/22/major-network-outages-in-u-s-following-two-x-class-solar-flares/

 

[Shadetree Mechanic]

 

[TM86]

 

[secret squirrel]

A couple Ukraine soldiers got bored and hooked a Cobra 29 up to the old OTH Radar "Woodpecker." They were upset that some guy in New Mexico was calling the "Window Lickers, so they maxed out the power to shut down all bands that they could. They shut down 700-800 Mhz.

 

[Captain Kilowatt]

I highly doubt the two flares caused any outages to the cellular network. They were X-1.7 and X-1.8 level and although quite strong, were nowhere near the class X-20+ level we had a number of years ago that occurred without any major problems. It was rated as a 20+ because the true level was never known. The Solar & Heliospheric Observatory satellite detected levels so high it automatically closed its shutters to protect the sensors from such extreme levels. It was the highest recorded event ever. The two flares the other day were nothing in comparison.

 

[Smokinone]

Likely will never hear the truth.

Another test like the covid lock downs.

 

[Greg T]

Funny thing, my phone never had a hiccup. Worked perfectly in the U.P. Looks like it was a localized target?

 

[brandon7861]

It was localized. The outage map matched Starlink's area of less than optimal coverage (areas priced at $110 instead of $90 a month), ie the whole southeast corner of the US.

If I were on a mission to install physical kill switches on the internet, I bet it would involve interruptions here and there and I would plan it for the same time as a software update and solar flare just to leave room for speculation.

If it isn't obvious, we live in a fear-driven dictatorship now, and we don't need to get torn apart on politics to agree on that much. Left or right or in the middle, that much should be obvious.

This is the norm now, next month will probably be another train.

 

[brandon7861]

Starlinks map now shows full coverage, but it looked more like att's outage map a month ago. Not sure if they are related, probably not.

 

[brandon7861]

maybe their 12GHz battle got a little out of hand lol

 

[TM86]

Having seen how little it takes to take down the various large "cloud" providers over the last few years, I think somebody just screwed up and didn't follow a process that they thought they knew. Or, worse, followed it to the letter without understanding what the consequences would be.

The telecoms technology we have has is great for getting the message through when everything works. Then there's days like Thursday.

And I'm sure the NSA is pissed about it because they missed copying some messages. Probably on the (landline) phone to AT&T all day yesterday trying to negotiate a discount on next month's bill as compensation. Forget it, Bob at the NSA. They don't care. They don't have to. They're the phone company.

 

[AudioShockwav]

They did a system update, and crashed the network.
Some geek fumbled it up and poof.

AT&T outage caused by software update, company says

AT&T outage impacting US customers prompts investigation into possible cyberattack.

abcnews.go.com

It happens.
I worked IT for McCormick Ambulance , aka AMR.
We had a newbie crash the medical billing network one day for the entire Los Angeles area and Monterey county.
I was at China Peak ski resort, had to drive 3 1/2 hours to physically install the back up on the server because when it crashed, it disabled the remote access...
Just another day in the woods.


73
Jeff

 

[Eldorado828]

One heck of a boo-boo! In today's world they probably just told him not to do it again or next time he'd get a timeout.

The company I work for was acquired by a huge worldwide conglomerate back in 2018. Since then, talk about a company with no consequences for the idiots. Att is a big conglomerate as well, it's probably the same type of softie environment.

 

[Shadetree Mechanic]

One heck of a boo-boo! In today's world they probably just told him not to do it again or next time he'd get a timeout.

The company I work for was acquired by a huge worldwide conglomerate back in 2018. Since then, talk about a company with no consequences for the idiots. Att is a big conglomerate as well, it's probably the same type of softie environment.

I bet you are right, Marxism is alive and well in a lot of modern American companies. Now days, equity means equity of outcome. Not equity of opportunity. You can see it in everything, from the attendance policy, to the way the pay scales are arranged along with the yearly review process. It is quite a slippery slope indeed.

Rant over.