lightning fried my modem

athalonhead

This is what happend to me 2 days ago. I was surfing online after a thunderstorm had moved to the north of me. The thunder was mostly gone when a rouge lightning strike hit behind my house. The whole back yard lit up that bright yellow. Electricity flashed on and off a couple of times then stayed on the tv got staticky but didnt go off. The computer didnt go off but the connection was lost.

Tried to reconnect and it said no dial tone but the phone worked. After trying a different pci slot I put in a different modem and it worked. I retried the old one and it still wouldnt work. It showed up in device manager as working properly. There wwere no visible signs of damage to the modem/burn marks.
My neighbor had a lightbulb explode when it hit.

Luckily I have a Tripp Lite Line Stabilizer / Conditioner LC 1800 that my computer/monitor/printer are powerd by. I think it may have saved my system.
For which I must thank TEX for reccomending it to me! THANKS TEX!!!!!!!

I dont think a surge supressor would stop a lightning strike power surge.

This is what it does. These are used mostly on servers.

Model #: LC1800
Premium automatic voltage regulation (AVR), power conditioning and AC surge suppression
Maintains regulated 120V nominal output over an input range of 89 to 147
1800 watt / 15A maximum capacity
6 NEMA 5-15R outlets, 6 foot AC cord
LEDs display incoming voltage range, surge suppression and line fault status

MY next question is How do I protect my modem?

Hawk

What kind of modem do you have dialup phone line, dsl or cable?

airbornflght

athalonhead wrote:

I dont think a surge supressor would stop a lightning strike power surge.

MY next question is How do I protect my modem?

1. Yes it will, the surge supressor will work, at least a good one will, that is why the good ones will have an equipment warranty in the event that it does fail.
2. Plug it into a surge suppressor with telephone line protection.

Im guessing he has a dial up modem, so the voltage likely came through the phone line, so get a surge suppressor that has telephone/CATV protection, and then it will be protected.

Hawk

airbornflght is right, a good one will protect your modem.
That's why I was asking what type of modem you had.
I've got all my pc's running into APC power backup which has all the plug receptors for phone lines/dsl, 8- 120V plugs. Serves as power backup & surge protection.
If he had cable he would have to get a cable surge protector.

athalonhead

It is dialup with a phone line.

airbornflght

yeh, so you just need a good surge supressor with with telephone protection. Get one with a warranty, because if a company doesnt warranty it, then they must not have too high of hopes for their product, and make sure to send in the registration card, because most times, if you dont send in the registration card, the warranty is void, but hopefully you wont need the warranty.

I use a APC Surge Arrest Personal, it has phoneline protection, but no cable, though I use neither of them.

athalonhead

Would this be a good one? Or what would you reccommend?

http://www.radioshack.com/product/index.jsp?productId=2102621&cp=2032056.2032151&pg=3&allCount=145&fbn=Type%2FSurge+protector&f=PAD%2FProduct+Type%2FSurge+protector&fbc=1&parentPage=family

TheSmJ

In my expirence you need to spend at least $30 to get a good surge suppressor. Also, look into brands like APC.

A good UPS would do an even better job at filtering power, and most have data line protection too.

Hawk

TheSmJ wrote:

In my expirence you need to spend at least $30 to get a good surge suppressor. Also, look into brands like APC.

A good UPS would do an even better job at filtering power, and most have data line protection too.

Yes, I like that mine have the extra connections for Modem,DSL,RJ11, and phone lines.
Here's a couple I have...#1
http://www.apc.com/resource/include/techspec_index.cfm?base_sku=BP700UC&total_watts=200
and #2
http://www.apc.com/resource/include/techspec_index.cfm?base_sku=BR1000&total_watts=200
And #3
http://www.apc.com/resource/include/techspec_index.cfm?base_sku=BE500R&total_watts=200

I started out with the small one on my first pc and as the farm grew I got the second bigger one and then the third-- biggest one.
Don't think I put them in order but you get the idea.

airbornflght

Yeh, the one on the bottom is a nice unit, they will save your butt. I am thinking of buying a ups, and a power conditioner for my computer, the power conditioner just to feed it cleaner power, and the ups so that my computer will stay up over momentary blackouts or when a breaker trips. Because I do a lot of photoshop work, and typing for a few different things. And if all goes well, I will be maintaining a few websites, so I wont be able to afford for my computer to go down with unsaved work.

TheSmJ

A good UPS will condition your power on its own.

athalonhead

Remember I have a Tripp Lite Line Stabilizer / Conditioner LC 1800 already.
I will probally get one of the 30.00-to 40.00 dollar surge supressor with the phone line/modem pretection.
Is there somthing that just protects the phone line though thats cheaper?

GrayFox

The LC 1800 should have ports for the phone at the back.

edit:


It looks like there at the bottom right.

edit: Nvm thats the power switch :o

edcentric

I use only APC UPSs.
The phone lines go through optical isolation. The signal is actually turned into light, and then that is read, all internal in the opto isolation chip. You can stop a lot of lightning that way.
On the power side there are MOVs. Small surges get absorbed by them. Large surges vaporize them.
I have one UPS blown. I have never lost a piece of computer equipment.

airbornflght

edcentric wrote:

I use only APC UPSs.
The phone lines go through optical isolation. The signal is actually turned into light, and then that is read, all internal in the opto isolation chip. You can stop a lot of lightning that way.
On the power side there are MOVs. Small surges get absorbed by them. Large surges vaporize them.
I have one UPS blown. I have never lost a piece of computer equipment.

The good thing about MOVs is that they are cheap, and if you have some basic soldering skills, you can do it yourself.