On 9/29/14, 1:34 PM, KenK wrote:
Several years ago, my built-in dial-up modem was evidently damaged by
static electricity from a nearby lighting discharge. Anyhow - it no longer
worked and I had to get an external modem. Since then I always unplugged
the phone line from the modem during stormy times or when the computer is
not in use. Normally I don't use the computer if thunder is in the area.

Now I have DSL. Should I unplug the phone line from the CenturyLink
(Actiontec) C1000A modem as I did with the other or is it protected? Anyone
know? Or found out the hard way?

TIA


Twenty years ago, my mother lost a computer because it was connected to
the phone line; probably there was a thunderstorm. The phone company
and power company used separate grounding electrodes. With an extension
cord and a voltmeter, I found they were not bonded. I dug a shallow
trench and bonded them.

Afterwards, I learned that the phone company prefers not to bond
electrodes, although this violates the electrical code. When a neighbor
kept having to replace modem cards, I found that his electrodes were not
bonded. Instead of connecting them with a few cents' worth of wire, he
decided to depend on a surge protector and disconnecting everything in
the event of a storm. That meant he began losing surge protectors as
well as modems.

Lightning hit my house, causing $3500 in structural damage and destroyed
electronics. I was online. I restarted my computer and found
everything fine. Across the street, the ground surge wiped out my
neighbor's computer, modem, surge protector, phone system, and satellite
TV system (connected to the phone line). He still refused to bond.

I like to disconnect everything in threatening weather, but it hasn't
worked. I was online when lightning hit a tree 30 feet from my service
entrance. The phone man had to replace a protector on the pole across
the street, but I had no damage. When a tree 70 feet from my service
entrance was hit, it lit the neighborhood and blew bark 50 feet. I
continued surfing the web. Lighting hit the house a second time,
destroying the control board of my HVAC system and a battery-powered
thermometer. I kept surfing.

Bonding between the phone system and the power system is vital. I do
run my internet cable (used to be the phone line) through the same surge
protector as the computer, and I do have a whole-house protector that I
installed on the breaker box about 1983. (I wonder if it still works.)