All the power cords for my PC and related equipment are through a surge protector, but I never bothered to put the phone line through. We had a big lightning storm come by, and of course, I fried my modem, well done, I guess.
I figure there are two types of people qualified to give advice, those smart enough to get it right on the first try, and people that are more familiar with the second part of "cause and effect". Posted by Dave Grundy (Member # 103) on :
James...Sorry to hear that...
Unfortunately I belong to the second catagory.....
I have fried/toasted/burned 5 dial-up modems so far.
Since getting DSL, I finally learned my lesson..those high speed modems ain't cheap throw-aways.
Mine is now surge protected and if a thunderstorm is anwhere near..I am off line with the plug pulled on both the computer battery backup system AND the phone line!!!!!!!!!
Posted by Kissymatina (Member # 2028) on :
Did that last summer. Unfortunately, mine went beyond the modem and fried the laptop. My phone line was also total garbage for a month. Either ya couldn't break the dial-tone or if ya did, way to much static to hear, let alone be online. Took a month & complaint to PUC to get phone line fixed and now my computer is always hooked up to phone line surge protector. Even if I'm traveling and just getting on for a minute to check email.
Posted by Dave Utter (Member # 634) on :
If there is lightning even in the forecast, I unplug every cable that comes into my computer from outside the house. (well, actually at the first sign of lightning) If we are going to be gone and there is even a remote chance for a storm, YANK!...Power cord, cable modem, and the phone modem for the fax. My uncle had a phone blown plumb off of his ear years ago by lightning, and a friend of mine had a wall phone melt, right on the wall. Almost caught his house on fire. hope the modem is all it got. good luck!
Posted by old paint (Member # 549) on :
living in the lighting capitol of the world(sarasota, fl.) you learn real quick what not to do.....the phone box on the side of house had the same ground wire attached to it as did my 220 electric feed to the meter and curcuit breaker box. on top of this, the plug that i had my computer pluged into, i added a single wire(8 ga)to the ground side, ran it thru the floor, under the house, and i took a 6 ft steel rodd and hammered it into the ground under the house and attached that 8 ga. wire to it.....!!!!! here i got new underground service(installed it last month, house is 120 ft from pole)and to pass code you have to have 2 copper 8 ft long rods 1/2" dia. 6 feet apart with those attached to meter/curcuit breaker exterior box with 4 ga. copper wire.....then when the phone co. came in to put their line in the pipe underground, i attached their box to the same grounds as the electric box....also did the same thing to the cable tv splitter box. no stray spikes gona happen here.
[ July 07, 2004, 02:11 AM: Message edited by: old paint ]
Posted by Ian Stewart-Koster (Member # 3500) on :
had the same problem here- the computer was off and unplugged- but I forgot about the ISDN unit and modem in the computer. A lightning strike a kilometre away induced enough current to fry the ISDN modem, our modem, and the motherboard & cpu. The rest of the cards, RAM and hard drives were OK, thank goodness, and we were only inconvenienced for a day and a half! (once bitten, twice shy!) Now, I use a USB key and keep copies of every work file transferred between the main computer (win98) and the laptop (XP) so in the event of something similar, work can continue more or less unhindered.
Posted by Mark K. Roberts (Member # 2239) on :
We all have an extra computer or two hanging around the shop, so to protect your valuable sign making programs, and other valuable files, set up a dedicated computer for email only. Download your email job files and burn them to a CD on this stand alone computer, and then load the CD onto your production computer. Do not network this computer to your design / production computer as lightning spikes travel over ethernet cables too. Your production computer will remain clean, virus free, and ready to work when you are.
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My phone line was also total garbage for a month. Either ya couldn't break the dial-tone or if ya did, way to much static to hear, let alone be online. Took a month & complaint to PUC to get phone line fixed and now my computer is always hooked up to phone line surge protector. Even if I'm traveling and just getting on for a minute to check email.
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