Windows 8 Hit by lighting again!

[MikeHawthorne]

Hi

I'm getting tired of this.
A year ago we got hit by lightning and it took out my computer, router and dish box.

I got a lot more careful since then, so when I heard that thunder during the night I came down stairs and disconnected my master plug, I have one plug that unplugs everything computer related.

That means printers, monitor, sound system, scanner, router etc.

I also disconnected my computer from the router.

I would have disconnected the router from the cable but the Comcast guy came by a week ago and said he was picking up interference coming from our house.

He turned on a detector and it screeched loudly.

He then tightened the cable connector on the back of the router with a wrench and the noise stopped.

You probably see this coming, because the connection was tight I couldn't take the cable off with my fingers as I have done in the past, so I left it connected.

So this morning my wife stepped out the front door when BAM!, lightning strike in the road about a hundred feet in front of out house.

It sounded like it hit the house it was so loud, the whole house shook,but she actually was looking and saw if hit.

And you guessed it, it fried our router.

At least we get good service from Comcast, the service guy just left and a new router is up and running again.
Pretty good only 5 hours from the time I called them.

Had to put new IDs in the laptop and iPad but every thing is online again.

Anyway my point is...

It really is a good idea to unplug your computer and everything connected to it from the electrical grid, as well as the cable coming into your house during electrical storms.

I've been hit 3 times so far, and the reason that I got it so bad a year ago was that I wan't home to unhook when it happened.

So it may be worth looking at the weather forecast before you go away from home too.

I just called our friends who live near us and told them to disconnect everything before they go on vacation next week.

There are more sever storms forecast for later today, the weather has been really bad lately.
The year we had snow on the ground for 6 months, that never happens.

It only finally disappeared a few of weeks ago.

Mike

 

[Jimbo22]

Hey Mike, have you thought about installing a whole house surge protector in the breaker box? I would seriously consider it since you've been hit 3 times. I love the show "Holmes on Homes"...the man knows his stuff.

 

[Joe S]

Mike maybe you need old tech, lightening rods I worked with a guy that had similar luck with his TV dishes.
Joe

 

[MikeHawthorne]

Hi

The whole house surge protector might be a good idea but it wouldn't have helped my router.
The lightning hit out by the road and the current came in on the Comcast Cable.

We did have new grounding put in around our house after the last hit, so the current doesn't have to travel through the whole house to get out anymore.

Fortunately as I said I had unhooked the router from my computer when I heard the storm coming, so the only thing that died was the router.

I have had a surge in the Comcast Cable fry on of my network connectors on my old computer a few years ago.
So I always separate my computer from any outside connection in storms now.

I watched the video, I'll check it out with my nephew who is an electrician and the one who added the grounding to our house.

We have considered lightning rods, the last hit we had (the one that took out everything) was to our satellite dish. It actually melted the brass contacts on the dish.

Unfortunately our house is actually at the 2nd highest elevation in our entire county.
It's all downhill from here! LOL

The only place higher is a scenic lookout names Fisk's Knob on the other side of the county.

It is very scenic but it has it's downside, we always joke that if we ever have any flooding, everyone else it really in trouble.

The last of the snow just melted off a few weeks ago, and it's always windy here, not good for flying my RC helicopters, or the fact that our 4' fences ended up under the snow this winter.

Our dogs could just walk right over them.

Thanks for the suggestions.

Mike

 

[strollin]

We have electrical storms where I live but we have never been hit by lightning nor have I ever known anyone that was hit. Sure would suck to lose some expensive electronic components due to a lightning strike. Hope you are able to find a good solution.

 

[MikeHawthorne]

Hi

The one last year dis a lot of damage including my computer but insurance covered all the costs and I didn't lose anything in my computer because the hard drives were OK, not so with the mother board, video card and some other components.

I bought a new computer, got the old one repaired and gave it to my niece.

Mike