Looks like the recent storms have killed my Netgear DG834G. Thankfully for me, Netgear are sending me a replacement but it will be about a week at least.

Problem now is I only have dial-up on the laptop to use, which means I need to sit at the bottom of the stairs by the phone point to get online! :thumbdwn:

So, forgive me if I'm not online much in the next few days. I'm being harshly reminded how slow 56k dial-up is!

Aw, I feel for ya mate!

Luckily I have surge protection for power and phone line... Well worth

The computer (etc) was all on a surge protected extension 4 into 1, so a little bemused about it TBH. :confused:

Still, i found an extension cord, so now at least I can sit down in the lounge. Big Brother eviction!

Ah the joy's of AC, suspect to surge spikes...

Suprised the surge protected extension didnt iron out any surges :confused:

Well I went to work at 8am and the power was on despite ongoing storms, but came home to find the master trip switch flicked to off, so put it back to on again. Thats when I noticed the frozen up router. :(

Still, dialup should be good for my internet habit and keep me doing things I should. Damn penny a minute!

Remember something here

Surge protect on AC alone WILL NOT STOP THIS when the surge comes through the phone lead itself

You may wanna look into surge protecting the phone connection as well, ie. BT socket -> surge protector -> ADSL filter -> ADSL router.

In reality, unless struck by lightning near the supply, most mains surges aren't fatal. For a start, the power supplies usually are able to take the hit without passing the surge through to their low voltage side.

On the other hand, the phone line isn't designed to cope with over say 100V peak, let alone with a bit of current behind it

Hope you are back on bb soon though, dialup just sux :(

So the lightning hits an overhead phone cable which could take out a router? All our phone lines round here are underground (as fas as I know!) so I'm assuming my phone line is not at risk :confused:

Chris

It should be ok if it's all underground from the exchange you're connected to. The exchange ought to protect you from whatever is hitting it.

The same by the way also applies to cable TV systems, or central arial systems. Problem is that it's very hard to get a good surge protector for those :(

Most phones appear to cope pretty well with surges, not sure why routers are more sensitive to it really.

Jason

Thank goodness for penny jars eh? and best for speedy recovery.

I only have a 4-1 extension also. I've seen some 10-socket ones, but not surge protected. Wouldn't mind one of those if they exist cos everything goes into the back of the computer one way or another... unless you can string 4-1's together, if you see what I mean.

Best

Mo

Best safety is to get a UPS with a built-in phone-pass-through socket. Belkin does some that are pretty cheap, or APC (better quality).

My most important rigs are on full UPS, others are on a surge protect lead.

In principle you can just get a single-socket surge protector and stick a normal extention lead in series with that. Be careful though as you're not really meant to do that from an electrical safety point of view, officially anyway. In reality it will work just fine, just stick low-load gear onto the second lead, and the high loads nearest the 'lead-end'. That will keep losses to a minimum

Best safety is to get a UPS with a built-in phone-pass-through socket. Belkin does some that are pretty cheap' date=' or APC (better quality).

My most important rigs are on full UPS, others are on a surge protect lead.

In principle you can just get a single-socket surge protector and stick a normal extention lead in series with that. Be careful though as you're not really meant to do that from an electrical safety point of view, officially anyway. In reality it will work just fine, just stick low-load gear onto the second lead, and the high loads nearest the 'lead-end'. That will keep losses to a minimum [/quote']

:confused: I don't like to ask, but it will save me hours Googling...

What is UPS and APC and is a "single-socket surge protector" the same as one would buy e.g. for the lawnmower, and how does one know if a lead is "in series" and what is meant by "second lead"...?

I'm afraid this is all a bit beyond me :mecry:

Ta

Mo

Imagine you have an extention lead with a plug going into the socket on the wall.

Then you plug another extention lead into the first extention lead. That means the second one is in series with the first one.

If your first extention lead is a surge protecting one, then the second one will automatically be protected as well.

Lawnmower one isnt a surge protector - that would be a residual current 'fuse' - basically that stops you from getting killed if you mow through the mains lead.

UPS = Uninterruptable Power Supply

APC = American Power Conversion - it's one of the leaders in UPS

Hope that helps

Thank you very much

Mo

Well, I'm back on broadband, sort of...

Mate uses the wanadoo sppedtouch modem think at work, so has brought the modem home. So I can use my connection, but with his laptop & modem.

Yey! pennies back in jar How's your usual connection coming along as this still sounds like a temporary measure?

Best

Mo

My Netgear router is now boxed up awaiting an email from Netgear with a prepaid attachment to it for me to send it back. Will be another week or more yet. :(

Can I be awfully light hearted and suggest that a day might be a long time in politics, but a week off the internet will give you chance to get out on the boat again?

I know it's a bit of a (swear word), so hope all sorted soon

PS Have you worked out how it happened yet (have to re-read the whole thread about this, but IIRC it wasn't clear - or maybe I'm suffering from brain overlooad again Tsk!)

Regards

Mo

Make sure you enable the windows firewall Jason, the Speedtouch USB leaves you 'publicly exposed' :naughty:

@mo - no probs, glad I could help