Protect your routers from lightning

I just wanted to remind everyone to watch out for lighting hitting your routers. I had a surge protector on my airport extreme and i saw lightning hit by my house and heard what sounded like a gunshot. It was my router.It went through the ethernet cable and somehow popped the back of my router off. I just wanted to remind everyone about this issue.

The Back actually came off with the lightning strike? Do you have any Pics? That would be interesting to see for sure!

I have seen lightning blow everything electrical in a house, so anything is possible for sure.

Jeez! I have a surge protector but a very old one at that, and almost everything electronic is plugged into it. I don't know how well it would take a lightning strike.

I will when i get home. I took it to the apple store and they were amazed by it. we were trying to think what it is in the airport that would do that

MacDude121 said:

Jeez! I have a surge protector but a very old one at that, and almost everything electronic is plugged into it. I don't know how well it would take a lightning strike.

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It won't.... A direct or near direct strike is going to knock out the best surge protector money can buy and fry your equipment anyway. What really happens during the strike is a strong EMP (Electro Magnetic Pulse) is generated all along the house wiring and anything else that will conduct it.

Just make sure your home owner's insurance has you covered. That's the best protection.

[/IMG] this is what it did to the router

Wow, that was a close lighting strike! I have seen some interesting damage before but this is nuts!!

As was said nothing will stop a direct hit but it will stop a static surge from a close by
hit or at least my last APC took the hit and saved the equipment. Another good thing
about putting your computer related gear and audio video equipment on seperate surge protectors it keeps internal spikes from damaging other electronics. After all if you look at your service box all neutrals and grounds are technically tied as one neutrals on the left tied to the grounds on the right connected usually by a bus bar at the bottom then connected to a ground rod perferably an 8 footer or should be.

Another important thing to note about surge suppressors - if your house is not properly grounded, surge suppressors are generally useless. I've seen a lot of people either use a two-pronged adapter to plug them into an older two prong outlet or break the grounding pin off. If you have an older home and haven't upgraded your wiring, the best surge suppressors in the world won't do you a bit of good.

cwa107 said:

Another important thing to note about surge suppressors - if your house is not properly grounded, surge suppressors are generally useless. I've seen a lot of people either use a two-pronged adapter to plug them into an older two prong outlet or break the grounding pin off. If you have an older home and haven't upgraded your wiring, the best surge suppressors in the world won't do you a bit of good.

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I was hoping someone would say this. Good going CWA! I see that all the time and even a light on the Surge Protector/UPS saying No Ground but they still are clueless!

And really, a ground fault test plug with the three pretty lights is around $9.95 at any Lowes or Home Depot. No excuse nowadays not to have a properly grounded AC line throughout your home.

Here in North Texas when we get thunderstorms it sounds like World War III has started.... ;P

Anyone have experience with the "whole house" surge protectors that are wired into your electrical box?

I have six of the APC UPS but have considered adding the above after watching Holmes on Homes.

They sell the whole house surge protectors here in Texas. I'm not sure of the total cost but it does include installation which involves sinking a grounding rod. It has to be done by a licensed electrician and inspected by the city for final approval. I've seen quotes for anywhere around $1000 and up depending on your home.

Also, and I don't know this for sure..... but a friend of mine who had one installed said he was told by the manufacturer that it was only warranted for one lightning strike. After that it has to be replaced. $$$

Standard install here Down Under the protectors in the meter or fuse box. Having lost routers during storm via telephone connections, find best result is simply unplug when not in use.

Phone company advised a strike up to 50 mile away can travel phone lines and cause a router to burn out. This happened to my last Open router - strike 35 miles away and zap no lights and no connections!