[Sussex] ADSL and weather

[John D.]

On Wednesday 11 July 2007 15:00:01 Jacqui caren wrote:
> Tim Smith wrote:
> > I'd go further than that and suggest that people disconnect in
> > thunderstorms unless you have a surge protected adapter. We once had an
>
> I would go futher - a non strike blew the BT "cycle-hat" dsl usb dongle
> and fried two ports of the USB card - The charge rippled through the
> PC and fried two wired ports on my wireless hub ~10 metres away.
>
> mains was surge protected but the phone was not (at the time).
>
> No other machines (running live) were harmed.
>
> After that we now power down and disconnect (as recently
> occurred) weven with surge protection then UPS.
> No longer worth the risk.
Well, having (in a "former life") worked extensively with RF, I feel it's fair 
to point out that all the surge protectors in the world aren't guarenteed 
100% and it's still possible to fry hardware, depending on the proximity of 
the lightning strike. 

The only sure way is to actively disconnect wired hardware completely i.e. 
modem/router/phone connections completely, not only because of the 
actual "lecktrickery" involved, but also because lightning apparently can 
cause limited "EMP" (not to the magnitude of a nuclear explosion of course), 
but potentially enough to distrupt signals (as it would appear that others on 
the list are already aware .......... ) and possibly fry any of the more 
sensitive components - though thats dependant on the "distance along the 
signal path" i.e. how close the component is to affected cabling.


"I was only a communicators daughter, but me dah dah didit and didit and 
didit"

regards

John D.