Why do I "need" FIBRE?

In @WalkWithMe's story, it was just a coincidence that lightning struck where the fibre box was. I'll bet you anything that his modem / router wasn't affected, just the connection box on the wall outside. Current won't have travelled through the fibre to his equipment the way it could easily have done with copper telephone lines.
Firstly it is she!
The wall box was on the inside.
Stuff unplugged on the inside was toast too
Even an battery powered alarm clock.
The air was electro static. The air smelt burnt
This was 2am in the morning.
 
Firstly it is she!
The wall box was on the inside.
Stuff unplugged on the inside was toast too
Even an battery powered alarm clock.
The air was electro static. The air smelt burnt
This was 2am in the morning.
Is your office on the top story of a large building? In my entire life I’ve never heard of this occurring.
 
Is your office on the top story of a large building? In my entire life I’ve never heard of this occurring.
This is my house single story that had a direct strike. Neighbour and I were the unlucky ones. Neighbours home was also fried and had electronic equipment in pieces. How there wasn’t a fire is a miracle.
 
We were running pilot project with Telkom in 1998 and had DSL equipment installed in a couple exchanges back then....
yes it was only commercially launched in 2002
That's interesting because I was employed at Telkom at the time, and I worked in the larney areas and knew NOTHING about it. We only got installation of the ATM equipment in late 1999 and this is in major exchanges such as Rosebank, Sunnighill Park and New Doornfontein. I only saw the pilot project run late in 2000, and the managers in my section were allowed to get it at home. I left shortly after that and had to wait until 2009 for ADSL to be rolled out in my area.
 
This is my house single story that had a direct strike. Neighbour and I were the unlucky ones. Neighbours home was also fried and had electronic equipment in pieces. How there wasn’t a fire is a miracle.
Yeah - this is going to be a freak exception to the rule. Sorry to hear about the strike, but if a battery-powered alarm clock even got burned then there's nothing that could have prevented it. Might want to look at lightning protection if you live in an area with frequent electrical storms - my folks' house in Pretoria has a lightning rod, I kind of thought that every house had them?

The common or garden lightning damage with computer equipment is when lightning strikes the telephone poles outside somewhere and then the copper conducts the surge in and klaps your modem.
 
Yeah - this is going to be a freak exception to the rule. Sorry to hear about the strike, but if a battery-powered alarm clock even got burned then there's nothing that could have prevented it. Might want to look at lightning protection if you live in an area with frequent electrical storms - my folks' house in Pretoria has a lightning rod, I kind of thought that every house had them?

The common or garden lightning damage with computer equipment is when lightning strikes the telephone poles outside somewhere and then the copper conducts the surge in and klaps your modem.
There is no exception to the rule here. A direct strike is a direct strike! nothing going to stop that. The is the rule of lightning, no exception.
Yes there is protection but that is only works for shock waves.
 
There is no exception to the rule here. A direct strike is a direct strike! nothing going to stop that. The is the rule of lightning, no exception.
Yes there is protection but that is only works for shock waves.
My main point was this:
The common or garden lightning damage with computer equipment is when lightning strikes the telephone poles outside somewhere and then the copper conducts the surge in and klaps your modem.
i.e. you're much less likely to be affected by lightning if you have fibre. Sure, a direct strike takes no prisoners, but those are rare, especially if there are lightning rods properly located around the suburb.
 
I don't understand how you get away with such a low cap. I've got a 40Mbps VDSL line (no fibre in my area) and live on my own and I easily burn through 300GB a month just streaming Netflix, Youtube, Showmax, etc.
Hectic. Any big downloads? Its probably all the porn chowing up your data :laugh:
We are 2 adults and 2 young kids. Stream all our TV requirements, and we use about 150 GB per month.
 
I use to live in Wilro Park, Gauteng
The lightning there was a force to be reckoned with and yes, direct hits, on the car port roof were common.
It destroys everything, even stuff that is plugged out completely, such as clocks, calculators, and even wireless remote controls.
 
Worth pointing out that Vanilla's R1177/m package is for 200Gb, their uncapped 1000/25 over Octotel is R1,677/m which is more than Atomic Access. (Disclosure: I am involved with Atomic)
Thanks Nick for pointing this out :) we are so glad to see you in the marketplace.. good luck! We do prefer gigabit connections and in our buildings we only have gig fibre. You can use our open access to those few clients although those are much cheaper prices as well as lightspeed gigabit. The one thing we disagree with you about is mesh wifi networks, we suggest wired APs are way better for the speeds over 200Mbps!
 
We always say it's not about the layer 2... you don't need fibre! Fibre should be the most reliable and long term solution for broadband. You need broadband in order to compete (economically and socially) in the knowledge economy. We do offer fixed wireless up to gigabit which is sometimes even better than fibre. Also available in more locations although needs more maintenance and has a shorter lifespan. Also, ther eis fibre and fibre, we don't think 10Mbps fibre is any better than 10Mbps adsl other than the upload is much faster so look at the total throughput. More than 20Mbps symmetric is needed for "broadband" imho...
 
Fibre is supposed to be superior to copper... but as I've learnt, this is a 3rd world dump so everything gets "dumbed down" accordingly
 
Worth pointing out that Vanilla's R1177/m package is for 200Gb, their uncapped 1000/25 over Octotel is R1,677/m which is more than Atomic Access. (Disclosure: I am involved with Atomic)

Of course the MD is involved :p ! , @nicksoper according to the vanilla site its only 100gb. Why is there such a disparity in pricing at this 1gb/s level between isp's over the same network ?
 
Yeah - this is going to be a freak exception to the rule. Sorry to hear about the strike, but if a battery-powered alarm clock even got burned then there's nothing that could have prevented it. Might want to look at lightning protection if you live in an area with frequent electrical storms - my folks' house in Pretoria has a lightning rod, I kind of thought that every house had them?

The common or garden lightning damage with computer equipment is when lightning strikes the telephone poles outside somewhere and then the copper conducts the surge in and klaps your modem.

Yeah dude if even an unplugged clock using a battery was hit then the ****ing house hit by an EMP device
 
Fibre is supposed to be superior to copper... but as I've learnt, this is a 3rd world dump so everything gets "dumbed down" accordingly

Speak for yourself. Openserve fibre is rock solid.
 
Yeah but I never heard of one in a house before
I have seen quite a few... often times the houses catch fire.
Those that don't catch fire usually require extensive repairs, the houses I've known that endured direct hits usually need to be rewired (the wires melt in the conduit and the plug sockets often explode), as well as replacement of the breakers and the earth leakage. Everything electronic in the house is usually a complete loss. The one place I helped my uncle out with to earn extra tom during my teenage years, even the geyser element was blown open circuit by the strike.
 
I have seen quite a few... often times the houses catch fire.
Those that don't catch fire usually require extensive repairs, the houses I've known that endured direct hits usually need to be rewired (the wires melt in the conduit and the plug sockets often explode), as well as replacement of the breakers and the earth leakage. Everything electronic in the house is usually a complete loss. The one place I helped my uncle out with to earn extra tom during my teenage years, even the geyser element was blown open circuit by the strike.

Damn son, I learned something new
 
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