Thunderstorms FUBAR'd my modem

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Deleted member 651465

Deleted member 651465

As title.

Woke up this morning to see our 2Wire 2700 flashing a single green "Internet" light, like it was trying to sync with the exchange. Phoned UKonline and asked them if there was any service issues in the area, to which they replied "no". Tried my backup DG834 and it synced straight away.

The wife works in a building next to the exchange and kindly informed me that lightning had struck the building the night before, so between that and the constant thunderstorms last night it looks like the modem finally gave up the ghost :(

Sorry.. bit of a rant, but what's the solution for the future.. surge protector?
 
Yeah I'd say a phone line surge protector should do the job.

Unfortunately it's just one of those unlucky things to happen :(
 
EVH said:
As title.

Woke up this morning to see our 2Wire 2700 flashing a single green "Internet" light, like it was trying to sync with the exchange. Phoned UKonline and asked them if there was any service issues in the area, to which they replied "no". Tried my backup DG834 and it synced straight away.

The wife works in a building next to the exchange and kindly informed me that lightning had struck the building the night before, so between that and the constant thunderstorms last night it looks like the modem finally gave up the ghost :(

Sorry.. bit of a rant, but what's the solution for the future.. surge protector?
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Unlucky EVH.

I have a spare 2Wire 2700 sitting here doing nothing that you can have for the cost of postage (http://forums.overclockers.co.uk/showthread.php?t=18134817).

Send us an email through my Trust account if you are interested.
 
EVH said:
Sorry.. bit of a rant, but what's the solution for the future.. surge protector?
Click to expand...
The naive are told it is a surge protection. Enough to be an expert. No reason to know why it works.

Either energy dissipates outside the building. Or that energy is hunting for earth via appliances. You had damage because it was incoming on some wire. And outgoing to earth on some other modem wire. If that current does not exist on both wires, then no damage.

No protector stops that current. Either the protector is earthed where wires enters the building. Or that protector does nothing. May even make damage easier.

If a surge entered on a phone line, then the master socket must be earthed, less than 3 meters, to single point ground. A protector without that short connection to earth does virtually nothing.

Same applies to AC electric. Again every wire in all AC power wires must connect to earth directly or via a protector. Otherwise the surge enters on AC mains, passes through the modem, then obtains earth via the phone line 'whole house' protector.

You had damage because energy was permitted inside. Once inside, a surge must find earth destructively. In any facility that never has surge damage, surges are earthed before entering a building. That is the only effective solution - proven by over 100 years of experience.
 
westom said:
You had damage because energy was permitted inside. Once inside, a surge must find earth destructively. In any facility that never has surge damage, surges are earthed before entering a building. That is the only effective solution - proven by over 100 years of experience.
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Totally agreed, although sometimes the green cab can get struck and that's enough to fry all the kit on the end of hundreds of lines :(

Quite a few people's houses get struck by lightning and the surge protectors haven't done anything, not a single fuse tripped at all.
I'm sure there was even a post on here saying exactly that...
 
Yamahahahahaha said:
Quite a few people's houses get struck by lightning and the surge protectors haven't done anything, not a single fuse tripped at all.
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Fuses take tens of milliseconds (or longer) to blow. Surges are done in microseconds. Why would a fuse blow during a surge? Fuses are not even relevant to surges.

Whereas a house connects to a wire down the street, BT's switching computers connect to tens and hundreds of thousands of wires all over town. Whereas the average home may suffer one surge every seven years, the BT switching computer will suffer over 100 surges with earth thunderstorm. So, how often is your town without phone service for four days while they replace that computer? Never is the standard answer. Because protectors properly earthed mean those hundreds of surges (including direct lightning strikes) cause no electronics damage. Protectors are installed to protect from direct lightning strikes (and other lesser transients).

Fuses obviously do not protect from surges. Either do protectors without the always required short (less than 3 meter) connection to earth.
 
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