Lightning vs. Computer System

So I come home today, driving into our driveway to see a large pine tree completely obliterated by a lightning bolt. There were pieces of the tree on the other side of the street, and they were a good 6 inches in diameter, and over 10ft long. A couple of those. Plus a bunch of crap in the yard around it. I check it out and what not, come inside to my computer...

The internet is no longer connected. But oddly enough, the wireless portion of my wireless router is still working fine, as I immediately tested it with my PDA before I disconnected anything. I didn't want to believe that it was a lightning strike that for sure killed something, so I go ahead and start messing with wires, rebooting modem and router. Modem gets to "online" stage on the modem lights, but doesn't establish a connection with the router or PC. Now with the router restarted, I am having issues getting that to work, as it was before I touched anything. If I turn it on, it boots up quickly as usual. I then plug the modem into it. Internet light on the router comes on. But as soon as I plug a hard wire from the router to my computer, it just starts rebooting over and over again. The computer, if it is hard wired to the router, displays the "Network Cable Unplugged" balloon over and over again. And if I connect the modem straight to the On-Board NIC card(where it was connected when the lightning hit) Windows says its connected with Limited Connection or some crap like that.

Does this sound typical of a lightning strike? The cable for my modem comes straight from the pole outside, underground, to my wall and straight into the modem. It is grounded at both the pole and at my outside wall. Could the lightning current travel about 130 feet, underground, to the ground wire(somehow, though I thought thats what its meant NOT to do), into my modem, pass through that(cause its working fine), into the router, allowing it to work till I rebooted it, and also killing my on-board NIC card. I have all of my equipment on surge protectors, so its less likely to make it through there I would imagine. Fortunately the modem also has a USB ability which is actually much slower than NIC, but I was able to salvage a NIC card from another machine.

Heh, I was planning on buying the parts for a new computer too, tonight. So I guess thats a go! What do you think though, sound about right for a lightning strike?

Thanks,
Cameron

I did computer and network troubleshooting and repair for over 25 years and I have seen some lightning ruined equipment including a modem that was on the phone line. Depending on what got hit it can pretty much wipe out anything plugged into an outlet or phone line. Even with surge supressors you can get taken out. If it didn't hit a transformer or power line nearby just the surge of power into the ground can do damage as one side of your AC line is essentially tied to the ground.

"Smoooooooooke on the water, fire in the sky...." (Deep Purple)

Sounds pretty consistant with lightning taking out computer eq. What you need is a form of full protection. I have a APC UPS that has phone jack protection, Cat5 protection, surge protection and battery back up. I suggest APC because they are really good in the claims dept.

I have another unit that when I first got I registered all my equipment. I was updating the BIOS on my laptop and I just happened to have the battery out the APC unit was faulty and my laptop shut off because of voltage sag. APC payed out the replacement claim after a month. They stand by their stuff.

The fine print on many surge protectors states that they must be used within a few feet of an earth ground. I don't have much faith in them.

The last major lightning hit system I repaired was a lot like that. Cable modem was toast, router was toast, network card was toast, and the motherboard was toast.

I repaired a friends computer that was exposed to a similar set of circumstances. Only the modem card was damaged. He could not dial up. I replaced his modem card and everything was fine.

I have seen lightning damage equipment due to the emp that it creates. You can use surge protectors and lightning arrestors, but when a direct strike is close by, all bets are off.

I also saw a textbook case once. There was a multi node network, which was protected fully, except for one little modem line someone hooked up. It got hit, directly. It came into the pc, arced to the nic, travelled down the cat 5, fusing it into a solid wire, and completely smoked 2-3 other computers on the network.

2 10' grounds, 6' apart connected to your electric meter box, cable tv and phone boxes will go a long way to protect you. YMMV!