The other day during a lightning storm my cable modem, router and motherboard were damaged by a lightning strike. I have no idea how close the strike was, but the damage coincided directly with the flash.
The modem was completely fried.... the router lost the WAN port, and the motherboard lost onboard LAN, all USB ports, and embedded sound.
No breakers tripped, and no surge protectors tripped. I believe that the voltage came in through the coax then traveled via ethernet to the router then the tower.
Nothing was damaged on the outside of the house where the cable enters, and the tech that replaced the modem didn't really have an answer when I asked about future prevention.
I think there is a ground loop problem where I'm at because I was measuring high EMF levels when the HDMI cable was plugged into the TV. When I would disconnect the coax from the cable box, the EMF levels would return to normal. I eliminated this problem with a ground loop isolator from amazon (connected between the HD box and it's cable feed only), but thought it was worth mentioning in case it was connected.
I've read about coax protectors that are available at retail being more or less useless. Do I have any other options during future storms other than to unscrew the coax? Are the strips with the coax input/output TOTALLY worthless, or could they "maybe" work now and then?
I just don't want to have to replace equipment again and it was a little unnerving smelling the burnt electronics in the cable modem. It worries me if it would have happened when I wasn't home.
The modem was completely fried.... the router lost the WAN port, and the motherboard lost onboard LAN, all USB ports, and embedded sound.
No breakers tripped, and no surge protectors tripped. I believe that the voltage came in through the coax then traveled via ethernet to the router then the tower.
Nothing was damaged on the outside of the house where the cable enters, and the tech that replaced the modem didn't really have an answer when I asked about future prevention.
I think there is a ground loop problem where I'm at because I was measuring high EMF levels when the HDMI cable was plugged into the TV. When I would disconnect the coax from the cable box, the EMF levels would return to normal. I eliminated this problem with a ground loop isolator from amazon (connected between the HD box and it's cable feed only), but thought it was worth mentioning in case it was connected.
I've read about coax protectors that are available at retail being more or less useless. Do I have any other options during future storms other than to unscrew the coax? Are the strips with the coax input/output TOTALLY worthless, or could they "maybe" work now and then?
I just don't want to have to replace equipment again and it was a little unnerving smelling the burnt electronics in the cable modem. It worries me if it would have happened when I wasn't home.
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