For those of you who have a router DO NOT leave it pluged in during a lightning storm lol. Thank god I have a four port router because the two ports that were being used are now fried to a crisp. Just turning off or unpluging your computer during a lightning storm won't do the trick. All the Ethernet cables have to be unpluged from the back of the router.
For those of you who have a router DO NOT leave it pluged in during a lightning storm lol. Thank god I have a four port router because the two ports that were being used are now fried to a crisp. Just turning off or unpluging your computer during a lightning storm won't do the trick. All the Ethernet cables have to be unpluged from the back of the router.
Thats unfortunate. I had an almost similar experience some 10 years ago, there was a storm, I unplugged all my PC etc but forgot to unplug the fone line to the modem. And there you go, it toasted my external 28.8Kbps Modem! 
Now I am using a UPS, protecting my PC, Monitor, ADSL Modem, Phone Lines etc.
Zac
Unlucky
I never thought of that happening, at least now I will be aware
Yeah it seems that the surge (after process of elimination) traveled on the cable signal totally bypassing the modem, and hiting the two ports on the router, also frying one of ethernet cable. Wild isn't it
Now I am trying to convince Charter communications to replace my router, or at most reinburse me for the 28 hours of down time caused by this misfortunate act from mother nature.
Have you got some sort of prevention now Gun Man? UPS perhaps?
Zac
That is a bummer.
Funny how I leave my computer and everthing else turned on during storms all the time and nothing has ever happened. The power goes out alot but that is about it. I must just be lucky.
That is a bummer.
Funny how I leave my computer and everthing else turned on during storms all the time and nothing has ever happened. The power goes out alot but that is about it. I must just be lucky.
You might just be lucky 
But you better be careful too, make some regular backups or buy a UPS. You can replace the hardware but the data is irreplacable.
Zac
Yeah I have a backup router, I still have two good ports so I'll use this one till it totally goes out. As far as data backups I do that on a regular basis
Yeah, I don't even have a surge protector either so I am really risking it, lol.
I already learned the hard way about data backups though. Now I do quarterly backups of all my data and keep it on an external drive. Losing everything on my main drive was devastating, definately a hard lesson to learn.
Yeah thats the way to do it, my backups goes to a server at another location and the backups are daily. I know sounds like over kill but i am at the computer 12 o 16 hours a day so data changes fast on a daily basis.
Aha.. My router lived thru it.. Too bad my 2 monitors and the 2 digital cable set top boxes didnt.. I don't think it would be feasible to unplug during ever lightning storm.. Would take too much energy...
Not to reopen the topic but a DC and AC Current meeting is bad for any thing. (think thunderbolt and dsl/phone line). I'll never forget what the guy who rewired our house said...
I've always thought about a UPS if I ever could build that Dream BSD Box, but oh well. I usually don't unplug any thing as the way I look at it is it's gonna get fried one way or the other and I'd probably be sitting on it at the time so hehe...
my router is plugged 24/7
i just don't care, when it is spoilt, i'll love to get a new replacement for it :light: :crazy:
Not to reopen the topic but a DC and AC Current meeting is bad for any thing. (think thunderbolt and dsl/phone line). I'll never forget what the guy who rewired our house said...
I've always thought about a UPS if I ever could build that Dream BSD Box, but oh well. I usually don't unplug any thing as the way I look at it is it's gonna get fried one way or the other and I'd probably be sitting on it at the time so hehe...
are phone lines AC? I did not know that! I guesse it makes sense.. they would use AC for the same reasons that a power line uses it..
After a lightning, the power got down and when it got up again, everything was working except for my desktop computer which didn't wanted to start. This computer was a Compaq so I called the HP tech support and ask them what could I do. They told me that the power supply must be broken and that I should get an other one. I tried every thing that I could to make it work. I tried the switch at the back of the power supply (110/220) and once I did this the computer started working again? I have no idea why this as solved the problem but I guess that it must be some breaker of some sort?