should you turn your pc off in a thunderstorm or even take out the telephone cable connecting to your modem?

Yes to both, and move the plug away from the socket to prevent arcing. Unplug the tellyfrom te mains and the aerial (and everything else that runs external)

I used to live in east anglia, and work on an electrical dept who provided quotes regularly for people who's houses had been struck by lightening ;)

As soon as the storm started hubby unplugged the laptop from the mains electricity supply. Fortunately we are wifi so i don't think that would be adversely affected.

Do surge protectors work? We have our computer, printer etc plugged into one. Our TV, surround sound and DVD are plugged into another. Do we still have to unplug the lot from the socket?

I think it would be safer to do so because as far as im aware they wouldnt deal with the kind of surge u might have if your house was hit by lightening

check the ratings for the surge protector, it depends on the type of protection that it's providing. A fully isolating protector will protect your equipment from pretty much anything, but they are quite expensive.

Unplug everything, Mine got struck with lightenung last year and I needed a new modem and sound card, finished up R lass bought me a new system for xmas.

Originally posted by viking
Unplug everything, Mine got struck with lightenung last year and I needed a new modem and sound card, finished up R lass bought me a new system for xmas.

Well it least it sorted out the christmas pressie for the guy who has everything!!

At one stage last night we lost broadband connection, mobile phone signal and television. It just went flash, boom outside and everything went!!

Our surge protector kicked in last night and did its job wonderfully

All my compters are on UPS's with surge protection built in, and our phone line has a surge proctecton on it. I've never had any probs with it.

Joel

Originally posted by Joelc
All my compters are on UPS's with surge protection built in, and our phone line has a surge proctecton on it. I've never had any probs with it.

Joel

Hehe, was going to say that myself.

Never had a problem with SP/UPS

lightning can also knock out microwaves btw

And fridges, freezers, battery chargers, CD players, DVD players, TV's, alarm systems, CCTV equipment, VCR's..................

I always turn my PC off during thunderstorms... Cos I was once online on dial up during a storm a few years back, and the modem got fried...

Fecking BT wouldn't do owt though, said it was an "act of God", WTF?! :loopy:

It was. Did BT make the lightning hit your modem? No? Then it wasnt their fault, FFS.:loopy:

Originally posted by Rich
I always turn my PC off during thunderstorms... Cos I was once online on dial up during a storm a few years back, and the modem got fried...

Fecking BT wouldn't do owt though, said it was an "act of God", WTF?! :loopy:

there is a film called "the man who sued god" witrh billy connoly, its an ok film and it is all based around that clause.

Originally posted by Joelc
All my compters are on UPS's with surge protection built in, and our phone line has a surge proctecton on it. I've never had any probs with it.

Joel
Oooohhh, look at Joel all posh with the UPS!;)

I had a customer in crookes once who I was fixing her pc, and both the modem and the BT line were fried in a thunderstorm at least 6 months beforehand.

In my opinion, If you have broadband supplied from an underground cable then you are unlikely to be in danger, but I would rather watch the storm than a computer monitor anyhow so it's rarely on.

My modem appears to be clapped.

Now having to use the spare PC.

"No dial tone" on the other, but same phone wire is OK for spare.

*searches on Ebay*

Originally posted by muddycoffee
In my opinion, If you have broadband supplied from an underground cable then you are unlikely to be in danger,
Well, not really. The lightning could knacker your PC through anything that is connected to it, mains cables, TV leads etc....

yes you should unplug all plaugs during them.

Especially computers.the slightest surge can blow the lot......last time we had a storm round here, people lost memory and modems mainly in theres.........just from the power going off then back on i think.
a mate who repairs pcs said at least 4 or 5 peoples pcs knacked