Lightning Damage (was: Re: DOS answering machine ??? )

At 12:00 -0500 10/16/06, Roy Tellason wrote: This seems to be a recurring theme in posts here. At least here in the central US, thunderstorms are pretty predictable. I have made it SOP for over a decade now to just disconnect classic gear from the wall when one is known to be approaching. (I even have the family trained to do it if I'm not around; it helps that we and our relatives have lost several TV's, stereos, modems, etc. to lightning strikes, so it's not just a theoretical possibility.) I recommend: 1) Plug all of the classic gear into power strips or surge suppressors. Plug the surge suppressors into the wall for normal use, and shut down/unplug the surge suppressor from the wall for storms. 2) Leave commodity stuff connected, if it's convenient. DSL hubs can be disconnected from the wall (and cable or phone line!) or can be left connected, with the ethernet coming out of them disconnected for duration of the storm. Cheapo modern ink-jet printers can be left connected to the wall, but disconnected from the classic computer or classic network. Nice Laserjet 4MP printers, etc. should be disconnected from the wall. 3) Wireless, where practical, makes disconnecting the network easy. A single wireless/ethernet hub, using radio to get to the wall-connected DSL/cablemodem hub, might be a *great* way to air-gap the whole classic network. That would reduce the storm-proofing operation down to a single wall plug (for the power strip). 4) Exercise the same precautions for winter storms - power line outages/restoration of power can do unpredictable things to line voltage and frequency. 5) Do not trust surge suppressors to do the job, either on power lines or on modem/cable lines. They help, but they have limitations. Some a lot more than others. 6) For stuff that is really hard to re-boot, UPS's can help if they are big enough. Disconnect the UPS from the wall and live with the alarm until the thunder dies down (but this assumes a big battery on the UPS, which might not be realistic). I know server stuff that wants to be up 24/7 is hard to do this with, but for really classic equipment, or for anything that's used on-demand (like Roy's modem), it really seems a shame to expose it to ESD death for want of a minute's work walking around the house and pulling plugs. My worst loss so far (knock on wood) has been a Powerbook 3400 internal modem board (visible damage on the board, pictures available on request). But I've been lucky a few times. Comments or further suggestions welcome! -- Mark Tapley, Dwarf Engineer (I haven't cleared my neighborhood) 210-379-4635