Lightning strike casualties!!!!!!!!!! BEWARE!

[akenis]

The suspected path and associated casualties:

1. Motorola cable modem
2. Linksys router (no port connection lights)
3. Linksys switch (no port connection lights)
4. Motherboard on server (would not post barebones)
5. HDHR ethernet (no ethernet port lights, won't join network)
6. HP networked printer ethernet (no port lights, won't join network)
7. Sage HD-100 extender (no port lights, won't join network)
8. Compaq laptop ethernet (no port lights, won't join network)
9. Onkyo receiver (D/A converter shot..$180 repair)

The day after, I went out to where the Comcast cable enters my house. Noticed a grounding block with a green cable. Pulled it up and it's not connected to anything. A foot away is a grounding pole with a similar green cable. Evidently the wire (4 yrs old max) was severed or corroded.

Questions:

1. Is my theory about broken ground wire plausable?

2. Is there a way to fix integrated Ethernet devices? For expensive devices (HDHR, HD-100, etc) It seems worth it to send them in for repair. I just tossed the Linksys stuff. What do you guys do?

3. What is the best protection to keep this from happening again? Obviously I reconnected the ground! The server and HD 100 were on surge devices. Anyone know about whole house protection (read in another forum where an electrican swore by Delta)?

http://www.deltasurgeprotectors.com/...SurgeProtector

or these things:

http://www.ethernetextender.com/ethe...ucts/250LP.php

Or what about those $10 inline ethernet protectors? Are they needed on every device, or just one at the external source?

Thanks for any advice and/or condolonces.




Detailed saga:

I lost contact with my HDHR. Has been working fine for quite some time. This afternoon a storm passed through and I lost my internet connection. I checked the network and that was inop as well. I checked the connect led's on the back of my router and switch and many of the ports didn't work, so I bought a new dlink router and 16 port switch.

First problem after that was that I still didn't have internet, so I think the Motorola cable modem is fried as well. When connected to the router, I don't get the connect led's at the port.

..and when I got back from buying the router/switch, my main server doesn't seem to boot back up.

..and the ethernet connect/activity lights don't appear for my HP network printer either.

Any way... the hdhr software won't detect the tuners. No steady LED light on the front for ethernet. I get the initial light dance on power cycle, and ocasionally get flashing ethernet light. I did download the latest software. I tried connecting to an older router that I use as an access point only. I tried direct connect to my laptop both auto ip, and set to manual per ts guide.

At one point, the status page of the new d-link router did show HDHR as part of the network, but I never accessed it with the config software.

It kind of seems like anything in my house with an Ethernet port got a surge, and the ports don't work.

Any suggestions?

Update:

-Got the server back w/ $80 replacement mother board
-HD100 extender ethernet is shot. Not showing up on network
-found out ethernet on a networked laptop is shot as well

[akenis]

I forgot...

Little ole MVP survived fine!

Is there a way for that thing to play stuff recorded from my HD PVR device? Come to think of it, my sage server won't even play that stuff. Guess I have a need to install the software that came w/ it to get the decoder.

[stanger89]

It's definitely plausible that a lighning strike took out your equipment by coming in the cable line. If that's true, I wouldn't expect the ground to have been much help (it was probably fried in the strike).

As far as preventing something like this, you basically need any line coming from outside the home to be run through surge protection.

That means the cable line, the telephone, the power, everything. To be absolutely sure you'd really need to do that at each device. Theoretically if you'd had your cable line running through a surge protector before going to the cable modem, the surge protector would have blocked the surge before it shot through your ethernet devices.

Unfortunately I know of no way to fix them, I think your best bet/only option is to replace everything that got fried.

Regarding whole house protection, it's definitely a good idea, but if the cable line is the source of your problem, then it wouldn't have helped in this case. This situation is why you need local surge protection even if you have a whole house surge system.

[GKusnick]

Originally Posted by akenis

The server and HD 100 were on surge devices.

You should put everything on your LAN behind surge protectors. If any wired LAN device is unprotected, then it provides a backdoor for surges to take out the entire LAN.

Basically, as Stanger said, for maximum protection you need to draw a perimeter around your entire LAN and protect every wire (power, phone, coax, whatever) that crosses that perimeter.

[scat]

akenis

I feel your pain, I have been there.
I usually have the coax cable go into a surge protector before going into the cable modem and when the RJ45 comes out of the cable modem into the UPS's RJ45 surge protection so it is double protected from the cable company.
But one day I way having trouble with my service and the cable company had to out and they ran a home run for my cable modem, and while the tech was there I didn't run it through surge protection because I was letting him get it working and I was going to do it later after he left, guess what?
I forgot until after a storm one night and I too turn on compuer and it wouldn't (POST) Boot up.
My damages were not as great as yours, mine was main desktop computer motherboard because network is built into motherboard, not my Sage server, a second computer's network card, no nic on mb, and the cable modem which was the cable company's and three ports on the switch.
So that is when I rebuilt my current desktop and build a official HTPC Sage server that I use now.

As GKusnick and stanger89 have said all (power, phone, coax, whatever) have to be protected PRIOR to any cables touching your equipment.

So every one Please check your protection

Scat

[Menehune]

Yes, every wire entering or leaving a building needs surge protection-CATV, telco, power, rooftop HDTV antenna, DISH antenna, etc. Llightning can jump 20 miles thru air so the 0.5mm of plastic insulation isn't going to be much protection. Hopefully you have enough protection to dissipate enough energy to ground that during a "near-miss" lighting strike that all your electronics won't be totally destroyed.

About 15 years ago we had an electrical consultant screw up and order a wrong voltage transformer on the college campus where I work. The resulting over voltage and power surges in one small section of campus fried one VT terminal, jumped into the serial lines, traveled across campus, fried the serial terminal server in a second building, exited the server and traveled thru the serial lines to the rest of the campus frying and connected terminals as it went. We had about $10k worth of surge damage to the networking gear in addition to the damage from running 480v into a 277v power distribution system-flourescent light ballasts exploded, time clocks burned out, motors fried.

Moral to the story: if you know a lightning storm is going to come thru town, unplug every cable from every device you want to use the next day.

[stanger89]

Originally Posted by scat

As GKusnick and stanger89 have said all (power, phone, coax, whatever) have to be protected PRIOR to any cables touching your equipment.

So every one Please check your protection

Scat

And I'm sitting here thinking to myself, "I really should take my own advice here..."

[trini0]

Damn. Sorry to hear of your troubles.
Here in S. Fla we're lightening prone. I better look at my setup and determine how to protect it...

[simonen]

I forgot what rain looks like here in San Diego. Preparing for more wildfires.

[loomdog32]

Moved from San Joaquin Valley to Permian Basin, world of difference in weather... 3-4 days a week there are very localized very strong t-storms seems to hit from 5pm-11pm (multiple lighting strikes, grapefruit size hail, 100+ degres - fun tornado weather)... Its hard to follow the weather forecast as every source says something different and forget about anything more than 2 days in the future....

If around midday it starts to look like more t-storms, I unplug EVERYTHING hooked up to my Sage box.. Made this a simple 2 step process.. Surge w/ CATV.. unplug this device from the wall and unplug CATV in from it.. If the surge cant get t the device, it cant hurt it!!