Thunderstorms and routers

For the most part, I am happy to leave my router on 24/7, though in my early days as an ADSL1 used I often switched off at night with no change to my Profile (This was to prevent another household member fiddling about.)

Now I�ve upgraded to ADSL 2+, I�m cautious, switching off only when there�s thunder/lightning or a strong Met Office prediction of the same. I�ve switched off three times in the last two months and each time I�ve resynched at a slightly higher line rate. My last resych will take me from 15 M to 16 M if I could maintain it but the weather front, the Met, and just looking at the sky suggest I�m going to have to switch off again soon.

I�d like to preserve my router, other equipment and, of course, that all importants bRAS Profile. I have surge protectors all over the place but I�m not keen on relying on the in the case of an overhead or nearby storm.

The jury appears to be permanently �out� on switching of routers irrespective of reason. I�d welcome options re thunder/ lightning storms.

PS The line is stable with no sync loss and downstream SNR circa 4-3 dB.

Thanks!

Edited by ARD (Thu 07-Jul-11 12:51:54)

You might like to look at http://www.ukstorms.com/ and click on Lightning Data. Gives a real-time picture of storms in the UK.

Never turned anything off in a storm and never had any problems, despite an overhead telephone cable from the pole.

Being is a village, the mains power (11kV overhead) is the first to duck out, but usually comes back a few seconds later.

My phone line is all underground to the house so I don't worry about lightning.

If the line is hit it will not matter if the modem is switched on or off ... If yiou want to be 99% safe then UNPLUG everything in te house, PCs, TVs phones, cooker, microwave, HiFi systems ...

Indeed.

10-12 years ago we had a thunderstorm with very near lightning. My PC was switched off, it was in the days of dial up internet, but I wasn't using it hadn't been turned on that day. At that house, the incoming line was underground but the telephone extension to the study went round the outside of the house.

The following day I went to switch it on. It wouldn't boot.

To cut a long story short, following an home contents insurance claim, I got an certified electronics engineer at work to check it over and he reported that the on-board modem, the motherboard, had all been destroyed by over-voltage (IIRC). Presumably induced voltage in the outside extension line.

The insurance company paid up.

My parents had a nearby lightning strike about 18 months ago that fried the router and took out the modem on one of their sky boxes - nothing else blew. But, as someone else says that could only have been avoided if they had actually unplugged, not just turned off.

Don't forget to unplug the lead from the phone socket. I lost a router and a phone last year. Nothing else in the house was affected so I think the strike was on the phone line rather than the mains.

I always do that- but thanks for the reminder.

Wise words but I'm trying to avoid adding to my neuroses collection. A direct hit and maybe I would not have to worry about bRAS, hardware, and other home contents ever again.

I always unplug computers anyway when I've reaching the end of the working days/evening but TV...? I'm now wondering how Freeview boxes fair in overhead storms...... To play extra safe I think I'll phone for a pizza tonight!

You can be too careful, I suppose, but my broadband is my priority after people...at least most people.

Edited by ARD (Thu 07-Jul-11 15:26:06)

Remember that if you have heard a specific "clap" of thunder, it is already TOO LATE, any damage will already have been done by the causative lightning.

5 seconds per mile from seeing the flash to hearing the clap.

My phone line is all underground to the house so I don't worry about lightning.

.. and what if somewhere nearby takes a hit, and your pair is in the same cable ? I have seen a 500 pair E side cable borked by a hit coming from a house on the D-side.

In reply to a post by ARD:

... To play extra safe I think I'll phone for a pizza tonight!

Better put the phone on loudspeaker and shout from the other side of the room.

All the lines around here are underground.

You (ie the house) do not have to be DIRECTLY struck by lightning for damage to be caused. Most telecomms equipment damage is caused by indirect hits, that is a strike to ground between you and the Exchange. This will cause a massive rise in Earth potential, and/or voltage on the line. However lightning strikes do not always cause damage. One of the most hit areas in the country is around Gatwick Airport, but very little damage ensues because of the railway line draining the voltage away!

If you are worried during a lightning storm, unplug the phone/BB line and all network connections from your kit.

John

Unless the UK is defferent from the USA, studies have shown that underground plant is affected / suffers damage MORE that overhead plant in thunder storms.

Tis a fact of life.

Oneday, he'll find out the hard way

Strewth, there does seem to be an effort to make people worry about lightning. I still don't care. I will not unplug my router just because there's a thunderstorm.

It's up to you.

I always unplug everything. Some of us have seen the results of lightning strikes 50 - 100 metres away, & explained to customers that their router / phone / computer / tv / etc, are only fit for the dump.

A strike 50 metres from a 4 story town house, resulted in molten plastic from a phone in the hallway, being found my me on the bannister knob on the top floor, & yes, they were fed via underground cable.

What's wrong with unplugging stuff for 1/2 - 1 hour, compared to the hassle / time wasted / money wasted, to get the stuff replaced.

I'm beginning to be surprised anyone gets to adulthood with all this dangerous lightning about.

You guys seriously unplug everything in your house when there's a thunderstorm?

wow.

I know what it can do, but I think I'll take my chances. Life on the edge!

Hello Roberto

I had been considering yoghurt cartons and string.

I did switch off and unplug just before 5.30 pm as I heard rumblings of thunder. It never developed into what I imaged from appearances and the Met Office prediction so I could probably have got away with leaving well alone. I�ve just switched back on and there�s a decrease of 20 kbps in the line rate, which won�t affect my profile that ought to go up a notch in the next few days.

Be very careful if the string gets wet, which is likely in a thunderstorm.

Seriously, I once had a customer have all six ethernet cards blown on his network. But these days, as others have said, on my home setup I just cross fingers and hope.

What did happen on ADSL was a thunderstorm was guaranteed to wreck the sync speed, but on O2 LLU it didn't matter. No problem on FTTC with the few since Feb, (no loss of sync according to tbb BQM), so the weak point looks to be on the E-side. Which is known to be dodgy at the best of times, and was one of my reasons for going to FTTC.

Edited by RobertoS (Fri 08-Jul-11 11:03:25)

LOL

If my synch ever suffected a long term reduction as a result of a storm I'd consider a move to O2 LLU and escape bRAS. Most people I know seem happy with it but I've had to define ISP to two of them so....?

My hope is to stay with my present ISP for ever, through a house move next year and FTTC upgrade. My current widespread exchange has no date set for FTTC, which is a pain because if I move within the same exchange it will take me further from the actual exchange building (under 1 km straight line). The neighbouring exchange, another likely place to relocate, has had FTTC put back until next June but at least it's a date in view. That would be fab because the properties I'd consider are only a few strides from the exchange.

Not everything. Only stuff that's sensitive to voltage spikes, & no, those so called surge protectors won't save you if the lightning strike is nearby.

4 * Computers / router / 2 ** printers (all on 3 multiway leads).

TV / sat boxes / blu-ray box (again on multiway lead)

That's not many plugs (4) to pull (+ the adsl lead), & saves them blowing up / losing data, etc.

As I said, I've seen to much kit as a black, burnt out mess.

Be careful about moving very close to an exchange if you want FTTC, as you may find you are connected direct to the exchange. Hence no cabinet. Hence no FTTC.

Several of us here can probably check the cabinet serving a postcode, though whether that would exclude the possibility of some lines not going through it I don't know.

Huge thanks for that tip, Roberto. I'm going to drive around that locale this weekend to ensure there is a cabinet between likely properties and the exchange. I'd proably be on the opposite side of a main road to the side road where the exchange is located.

I've never turned my router off during a thunderstorm.

In fact if anything more things are turned on during a storm.

The thunder and rain mean everyone comes inside, sits on facebook, watches tele, does the washing, whatever... Once it stops and becomes sunny we head back outside.

& I've never seen my sync drop during a storm and I've monitored my SNR before, it didn't change.

Everythings a risk in life.

In reply to a post by ukhardy07:

& I've never seen my sync drop during a storm and I've monitored my SNR before, it didn't change.

My Sky D-Link router spontaneously rebooted once during a thunder storm. Either it was very sensitive to the electromagnetic radiation caused by the lightning, or the power supply had a brief flicker (which sometimes happens here during thunder storms). Also, I did have a Compaq laptop plugged into the phone line during a thunder storm about 15 years ago which managed to fry the internal dialup modem, but the house phones were unaffected.

However, it doesn't really concern me enough to unplug anything during thunder storms, and the Compaq is the first and last item of electrical equipment I've had which was (probably) damaged by lightning.

Had a T-storm here about two weeks ago. It took out my router, the power supply in one of my PCs, a power supply on a DECT phone and a heated towel rail in the bathroom!

However, in a way it did me a favour as I bought a totally different router and that performs way better than the old one. Whenever I hear a rumble now, I pull the power and phone line on the router and all the power plugs on my PCs. I have had to do that several times in the last week, it has not changed my 6m profile and it always re-syncs at more or less the same speed

Me neither

I figure the powered TV aerial will take the hit first

http://www.blitzortung.org/Webpages/index.php?statio...

If you get a direct hit you will have more to worry about than your router