Modem hit by lightning fears...

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Borgir

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Hey there..

Not sure as subject says.... Was up till 4am gaming.... Then out of nowhere got hit by lightning.... Everything was still up *Pc etc etc* But Modem died....however 10 seconds later it came up....LAN Came back up....Router all fine...but it kept trying to connect and once it did....*to ISP* It cut again....Rince and repeat.... i get about 40 seconds tops to type this before it yet cuts again...

Is this my modem at fault? Or did some DSLAM take a hit?

:(
 
hi Borgir, if your modem did power off during the lightning hit, and since then it has been giving u problems, its a good possibility that your modem is gone, but just to confirm this, i wud advise you to test your line with someone elses modem and see what happens and also test your modem on someone elses line.
good luck
 
Hey Borgir,

I can give you an IS capped again to test with if you want. Just to rule out whether its your ISP or not.

Then you can take it from there....

PM me if you'd like, and i'll organise it for you.

Thanks,
MrBEEP
 
Regarding lightning protection, what're the chances that the lightning strike is so bad that it

1) gets past the lightning protector (via phoneline but suppose possibly thru power outlet too) and actually fscks up the modem and

2) is it possible that it will then travel along the LAN cable and screw up the mother board?
 
I was playing my last game of poker last night :P and just as i turned off my router and pc at about 2am the lightning started and all the power went out and only came back about 3:30am
 
Dovi said:
Regarding lightning protection, what're the chances that the lightning strike is so bad that it

1) gets past the lightning protector (via phoneline but suppose possibly thru power outlet too) and actually fscks up the modem and

2) is it possible that it will then travel along the LAN cable and screw up the mother board?
Click to expand...

I've heard lightning stories where the lightning hits a church-tower, chips out a piece of the concrete and pretty much neutralises the church organ. And this is just using the common ground - not a pretty piece of wire connecting the two together!! :)

Don't mess with forces of nature... :D
 
Dovi said:
1) gets past the lightning protector (via phoneline but suppose possibly thru power outlet too) and actually fscks up the modem and
Click to expand...

Nothing is 100% safe

Dovi said:
2) is it possible that it will then travel along the LAN cable and screw up the mother board?
Click to expand...

This happended with my 56k modem.. not lan cable obviously but i guess it must be similar.. mobo was blown

On the same topic, power cable got hit in my area at about 2am last night only got power back about 15 mins ago
 
looking at the sky looks like we might get some more rain and thunder tonight but the rain is always good i just hope the power doesnt go out tonight :D
 
Unfortunately

You may have to rely on Telkom to tell you the truth about this one... unless you have a friend with another modem to test... if it is connecting in the first place before disconnecting, then it could be either side... in my opinion, Telkom will blame your equipment and want to charge you... or claim that the fault was on your side of the local loop and bill you, so it is good to get a neutran opinion before telkom arrive. Take you modem to a friends place to test if you can...
 
Ok found out the problem, but dunno how to fix it :(

First of all ...Thanks MrBeep...That is amazing service...However the problem is the actually Line that goes into phone jack...

I noticed that when i unplugged my Filters/Phone the ADSL Came up....I thought at first maybe it was line noise...

After a lot of Diagnostics....I bypassed the Surge Thingy and used my normal phone line into Modem/Jack and it working fine now...

So it seems the surge thingy saved my modem/pc.

However on inside i guess it is stuffed.

Does Telkom offer Power Supplies for Modems on own? and if so how much?

Is it possible to use an ISDN Surge Protector with it? *protects line too*

Or just get a new modem than Marconi crap?
 
If you can afford it, an upgrade is always cool.. but not all of us can afford to fork out for a new modem all the time. My Billion didnt come with any protection.. I use the same plug+line protector I used with my 56k and everything works 100%. Cant say anything about the isdn unit.
 
Lightning hit our modem once, it fried the modem the pc that the modem was connected to and all the ethernet cards that was connect to that pc plus the switch:mad:
 
Got something similar to this in my English exam 3 days ago...

"Correct the errors in the extract below:"
oober said:
Lightning hit our modem once, it fried the modem the pc that the modem was connected to and all the ethernet cards that was connect to that pc plus the switch:mad:
Click to expand...
 
This kinda happened to me the other week:
Modem couldnt connect for the whole evening after the lightning hit closeby.

Then, out the blue, it conencted again, so i take it that lightning killed something at the exchange... Who knows.. you might be back, up, 'n running tomoz :P

I did tinker around a bit, but i really doubt that it was the cause of it coming up again.. just swopped out some of my cabling for others.... still didnt come up after that.. only after i sat and conjured up some spells ;)

I really hope its not your side that had something fry, but rather the other side ... GL m8 :)
 
I bought a Netgear router instead of Telkom's. It does not have a surge protector. I installed and wired up everything. A few weeks later there was a bad storm and I unplugged the line for safety. When the storm was finished I plugged it back in and went online. A sudden lightning flash - literally out of the blue sky - fried the router ( Some of the copper tracks on the router motherboard actually burnt out).

When the Telkom techie "installed" ADSL he left and old ISDN surge protector in my wastepaper basket. I opened it up, traced the circuit and checked it with an ohm meter. It looked OK. so I rewired it a bit ( the IDSN connector is different ), and it works fine with ADSL . Incidentially The ISDN protector has two channels, so I can use the other channel if one gets fried.

I am very surprised that a 56k surge protector will work. They usually contain inductors and capacitors that I assumed will screw up the high frequency ADSL signal horribly.
The ISDN and ADSL protectors used different ( and more expensive) components - breakdown diodes - and a gas thingie, which will not distort the signal.

Renember - if it does not have an earth connection it is useless as a surge protector.

I still unplug for bad thunderstorms. We live close to an airforce base, and I think their big antennae " attract" lightning.
 
there is pretty much nothing you can do about lightening. i moved up to jhb earlier this year and during a storm the lightening blew my modem, motherboard, fried my ram and toasted my CPU. a few days later the chip in my lcd gave in as well.

i have bought some lightening protection now, but the safest thing is to unplug... (if only i could take my own advice, half way through a clannie there is no way i am unplugging!)
 
Remember two weeks ago when we got our first real thunderstorm for the season in Joburg on Friday afternoon??

I rushed home from work, realising my Router was still plugged in. Got home, Everything was still working. Unplugged the phone line and dropped it behind the router. It was with a sigh of relieve, as I had only just paid for the router that day (30 day accounts are great)

I turned around, saw the flash and heard the bolt strike at the exact same instant thorugh the window. I was not sure if I was blinded or actually deaf or both. It had hit my neighbours house I found out later.. Oh and if your wondering.. It arced right through and fried the modem and the computer next to it.... :(

So much for unplugging it!
 
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