Ethernet switch

[ikonix360]

The company who we went with after the lightning strike last year recommended us a good one to get that they use in installs.

Things connected to power can definitely be damaged by a lightning strike, however in this case the damage would have been very limited had things not been connected by ethernet cables given we lost both ethernet switches and the ethernet port in the mixer and both the modem and router.

 

[PP Mguire]

There's no guarantee of that because of how sporadic lightning can be when it strikes and what it damages down the line. Anything connected to power in the building that is struck is susceptible of being surged. For instance instead of just the port being damaged it could have been the whole board, or even just the EQ circuit itself inside the board, or a lightbulb could burst and that's it. There's never any telling where the path of the stream will go and what it will take out or arc to inside the building. I've had lightning strike my parents house before and all it took out was my CPU and motherboard. Not my monitor, amp, consoles, router, GPU, RAM, HDDs, or anything else plugged into the same surge protector. PSU even worked fine after extensive testing. Nothing else in the house was damaged.

 

[ikonix360]

True, however limiting what is connected to each other will reduce somewhat the chance of damage even though it won't eliminate it completely.

 

[PP Mguire]

True, however limiting what is connected to each other will reduce somewhat the chance of damage even though it won't eliminate it completely.

A UPS behind the switches and important gear on each side does the same thing, which if I read your other post correctly is something y'all already have.

 

[Joe C]

There's no guarantee of that because of how sporadic lightning can be when it strikes and what it damages down the line. Anything connected to power in the building that is struck is susceptible of being surged. For instance instead of just the port being damaged it could have been the whole board, or even just the EQ circuit itself inside the board, or a lightbulb could burst and that's it. There's never any telling where the path of the stream will go and what it will take out or arc to inside the building. I've had lightning strike my parents house before and all it took out was my CPU and motherboard. Not my monitor, amp, consoles, router, GPU, RAM, HDDs, or anything else plugged into the same surge protector. PSU even worked fine after extensive testing. Nothing else in the house was damaged.

Might not have not been a power surge but possibly an EMF charge that took out the cpu and board? Lightning will do wierd stuff but generally it will follow the least path of resistance. Several thousands of volts will not be stopped by any home surge protectors. If an arc of eletricity can jump 1000's of feet through the air then a simple surge protector would be no challenge to arc across that either

 

[PP Mguire]

Might not have not been a power surge but possibly an EMF charge that took out the cpu and board? Lightning will do wierd stuff but generally it will follow the least path of resistance. Several thousands of volts will not be stopped by any home surge protectors. If an arc of eletricity can jump 1000's of feet through the air then a simple surge protector would be no challenge to arc across that either

That's why I keep saying UPS. In most cases the batteries fail and cuts the line, but in rare cases it'll either straight arc or blow up the batteries causing more damage. There's not a whole lot that can keep lightning from fucking up your day, but a UPS minimizes the potential more than surge protection.

In my current rental there's a tall ass pole holding a previous tenants WISP receiver. I took a look and it's not even grounded. I've been pretty nervous in these Texas storms that it's going to be a huge lightning rod. We've had several instances in just June of folks having trees struck and burnt to a crisp. One was at the end of my road. I've been living life in the fast lane the past few years but since my rack is next to my PC now I have my PC plugged into my rackmount UPS along with my server and network gear.

 

[ikonix360]

The ups didn't stop the damage in the sound booth this time and last time.

Getting rid of the ethernet cables will be one less path for lightning to follow.