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I used to have a home network, until lightning hit nearby. It came up the power connection and the copper phone connection. The modem/router/switch fried, the
by femto 3y ago
I used to have a home network, until lightning hit nearby.
It came up the power connection and the copper phone connection. The modem/router/switch fried, then it spread out though the twisted pair Ethernet and fried every interface connected to the network.
These days I use WiFi unless I really need low latency / high reliability in a particular location. Optical would be nice, but WiFi is the poor man's lightning safe network.
- fastball 3y agoIs it not possible to surge protect the copper phone line?
- NavinF 3y agoIt's pretty easy, but also unnecessary when everyone uses VoIP and fiber is cheaper per ft than copper
- monstermunch 3y agoYep, first thing I did was cut the phone line and Coax off the house!
- CuriousCosmic 3y agoYeah this is why I like fiber optic cables. Lightning can't surge the modem if there's no electrical connection. And then standard power isolation and surge protection will handle all the power connections. I've yet to loose equipment to lightning from the power cables but I literally can't count the amount of equipment that has been killed by lightning striking a copper data line and then surging through my network.
- pottertheotter 3y agoAll I can get is cable internet so this worries me. What’s the best way to implement power isolation and surge protection?
- Dah00n 3y agoIf you want to isolate the internet connection with fiber you can use an ethernet to fiber box. Something as simple and cheap as this would do: https://www.tp-link.com/us/business-networking/accessory/mc220l/ https://www.tp-link.com/us/business-networking/accessory/mc2...
- theshrike79 3y ago+1 for the TP-link, I've got one running fiber to my AV equipment :) It was a lot easier to run a pair of fiber-optic cables there than it would've been to do the same with cat6. Also I got to play around with fiber for the first time. Never thought of isolating my modem from the rest of my gear though, I need to look into that.
- Dah00n 3y agoSide effect of introducing less noise into AV equipment is a nice bonus!
- kibibyte 3y agoThere are surge protectors that can protect the coax cables used for cable internet. Here's one that I use: https://www.amazon.com/Tripp-Lite-Right-Angle-Protection-TLP1208TELTV/dp/B0035PQGKU https://www.amazon.com/Tripp-Lite-Right-Angle-Protection-TLP....
- bombcar 3y agoYou can never get perfect isolation from lightning (a direct hit will almost certainly take something out) but you can do worse than making sure you have an excellent grounding rod setup and a whole-home surge protector, which you monitor. And then you can put surge equipment on any other incoming wires.
- deleted 3y ago[deleted]
- teddyh 3y agoCouldn’t lightning just as well fry everything connected to power? In that case, WiFi will not save you.
- femto 3y agoWhen lightning strikes, the phone network and power network are often driven to different electric potentials, meaning a current will flow between them. When that happens equipment that is connected to both the phone line and the power will act as an (expensive) fuse. With only one connection (power or phone) the whole device tends swing at the same potential. Damage can occur if it arcs to ground, but that's less likely as in a device the isolation to ground is typically higher than between the power and data parts of a circuit. (Extra bad news if the arc to ground happens via a person.) Incidentally, if a lightning strike is nearby a typical consumer surge protector will improve the odds but probably won't prevent damage.
- jamespo 3y agoThe APC 850 UPS has ports to surge protect the data connectivity.
- RulerOf 3y agoI had an ISA dialup modem that got hit by lightning. Loud boom then my DUN connection hung up. When it came back, that modem still worked, but it was stuff "off the hook" forever. I had to unplug/replug it every time I wanted to dial out, and the phone line was permanently busy.
- hqsolomo 3y agoWhen I was younger lightning struck our apartment building and it killed my consumer router. I replaced it and put it on the surge protector. A few months later we got struck again. The router survived but the building caught fire. Now that I'm older I just accept the risk that "sometimes nature hates you". Instead of jumping through hoops to protect my gear from nature I just set aside money to replace anything I can't afford to lose. Life's too short to play tug of war with the planet and I'd rather set aside $50/month to pay for replacements when I need them.