Thunder storms?

CodeMaster

CodeMaster

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Was just wondering how many people trust their faithful surge protectors to protect all their precious hardware.
I tend to unplug my equipment during electrial storms, just in case :)

For the Cape Town people, an electrical storm is when there is lots of lightning and thunder ;)
 
On a similar note, my line went down last night.. was back up this morning tho. Noticed quite a few telkom vans when i was driving into jhb this morning.. seems like the storms yesterday did some damage
 
Nothing to complain about so far. I have a 28 computer lab that has been running for about 3 years now all day all year and still happy.
 
eish youve spoken to soon

expect all 28 to get hit in next thunderstorm

never kick a bull in its mouth
 
killadoob said:
eish youve spoken to soon

expect all 28 to get hit in next thunderstorm

never kick a bull in its mouth
Click to expand...

heeee wena Killadoob... good thing I never told you where I was.... :cool: So is you thinking about sending some storm via Black Majic Express...: rolleyes:
 
Turbo_Aspiration said:
On a similar note, my line went down last night.. was back up this morning tho. Noticed quite a few telkom vans when i was driving into jhb this morning.. seems like the storms yesterday did some damage
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The extra teklom vans are because it's "No Car Day". ROFL ROFL ROFL.
 
HAHAHAHAHA

Is that today? What a stupid idea! The public transport can't accomodate the current load. How do they expect it will work it they tell EVERYONE to use it on one day!

Bunch of idiots!
 
i would rather kill myself in my car

then be killed in a taxi accident or hurt even

although could be quite a mind **** take acid and go on taxi rides lol
 
There is only a surge protector... if someone sells you a 'lighting arrester', laugh in his face as scientits have not manages to do that yet.

A lightning bolt struck close to my house last week, I heard it Arc in the surge protector, and my netgear router .... but the only thing that was taken out was my port at the DSLAM!

Richard
 
I have infact heard of a something or other (I'm not very clued up on the electronics front), that you can install in your main circuit board, which pretty much protects everything on that circuit.

Obviously it doesn't help if it strikes the phone line, but it would be nice to not have to worry about 1 more thing.
 
I am pretty confident, have surge protectors everywhere...

I live in a thatch roof house, so I have the added protection of a lightning rod :D
 
stoke said:
Extreeeeme gaming - BF2 during a lightning storm.
*stoke makes note to move to the edge - of Alberton*
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DONT YOU DARE MOVE! Having two people gaming online, in the same area during a lightning storms is going to increase the odds of my PC being hit.

On a side note Lightning protecters/Arresters/what ever, will work to a certain extent. It all depends on how close the strike is and the level of charge coming through your line, 60% of the time they will work fine and they end up being destoryed instead of the equipment you have it plugged into. The other 40% you dont stand a chance.

If it is a direct strike (not a near miss or some of the bolt arcing to your house).. No amount of protection is going to save you

I've personally been in a house that had a direct strike to its lightning rod when I was a kid. My ears where ringing for a week afterwards. The next morning we found the top section of the lightning rod at the local shopping centre when we went to go get ice to keep the food in the now dead fridge cold. The shopping center was 3 km's away:eek: The rod took most of the current to ground, but the lightning arced through the house and all the way around the burglar bars. The light fittings where blown out of the roof (not the lights bulbs.. the fittings), and the plugs fused in the sockets. The TV exploded, The DB board was a melted mess of plastic and steel, even the kettle element was shattered. Everything had to be rewired in the house as all the cables had split open, they looked like a fuse from a tom thumb cracker that had burnt through and in some places had even burst the plaster off the walls

So stoke.. stay away from Alberton please :D
 
Its not true in an ADSL environment as the line is not switched.... ADSL is allways on and allways connected to everyone. (through routers of course) but Lighting doesnt use TCP/IP so if you are gaming - its irrelevant. If lightning hits the DSLAM switch you are connected to.... everyone on the segment is toasted...

On dialup, the odds increase when you are connected.

Richard

Kalvaer said:
DONT YOU DARE MOVE! Having two people gaming online, in the same area during a lightning storms is going to increase the odds of my PC being hit.
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RichardP said:
Its not true in an ADSL environment as the line is not switched.... ADSL is allways on and allways connected to everyone. (through routers of course) but Lighting doesnt use TCP/IP so if you are gaming - its irrelevant. If lightning hits the DSLAM switch you are connected to.... everyone on the segment is toasted...

On dialup, the odds increase when you are connected.

Richard
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Ahhh true.. But it was a joke. IE: two people tempting fate in close proximity to each other stand more chance of causing the event taking place with my bad luck..(even if you really want to get technical using stats to prove that my chances have decreased by adding more to the situation.. Its was still a joke :D )
 
Hmmmm - I have a 40 metre bluegum tree at the back of the garden next to the telkom pole and my telkom line actually runs around the tree - so ya - I unplug everything.......!!!!
 
stoke said:
Me - I don't unplug anything when the storms hit.

Extreeeeme gaming - BF2 during a lightning storm.
*stoke makes note to move to the edge - of Alberton*
Click to expand...

Move over extreme sports and extreme ironing we now have extreme gaming :D
 
We have put a lot of effort into lightning protection in our place - and we still got hit once.
Telkom line got hit and all the modems were protected - but there was a flux linkage to one of the ethernet cables that ran along side it and it fried a port on the switch and 1x motherboard as well :(

Our protection setup is as follows and seems pretty effective.
1: Steel sheet roof that is linked by heavy wires to earth rods in the ground at about 6 places around the house. Also we've finally disconnected all the links the roof had with the electrical system so that roof strikes and close strikes won't put spikes into the system.

2: MOV (Metal-Oxide Veristor) protectors on both live and neutral lines in the main DB where our power comes into the house.

3: MOV protectors on the outside wall where the Telkom overhead line meets the house - earthed on its own independent earth rod.

4: MOV protectors encased in every wall socket where computers or computer peripheralls are plugged.

5: Gas arrestors and MOV delta arrangements at each phone extension point earthed through an independant network of earth cables and then to an independant earth rod.

6: Earth lines running along side every ethernet line - i don't really want to mess with wired in ethernet lightning protection as it is likely to cause more hassel than its worth...
 
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