FTTC during Thunderstorms

[#1]

I just saw the forecasters was all over twitter, facebook, press, itv news, sky news and bbc news of a possible severe thunderstorms in all over UK start from this Sunday onwards lasted until next Thursday because of very high heat, humidity and cape index leads to severe storms.

I know during thunderstorms that all FTTC modem / router should be turned off and pulled out dsl cable from the telephone socket. I saw press newspaper a long while back where a lightning bolt damaged bt socket.

I expecting PN will be huge pressure to deal with FTTC customers will complaints of DLM during bad storms next week.

Probably advised best to leave modem off overnight when go to bed and pulled out cable of dsl socket during overnight storms as possible.

[#2]

This all seems to be a bit dramatic. I agree that if your property is fed from long overhead telephone or electricity cables that the risk will be increased. In my case these sre all underground so the risk is low enough for me not to bother. To be honest I have considerably more expensive equipment permanently connected to the mains than my £20 modem router.

Some people seem to think that having equipment plugged in attracts lightning. This is not the case.

[#3]

Are you distributing tin foil hats with this nonsense as well? 

[#4]

Moderators Note

This topic has been moved from Fibre to Everything Else as it's not related to an issue with a fibre connection, more a query.

[#5]

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@goldenfibre wrote: I know during thunderstorms that all FTTC modem / router should be turned off and pulled out dsl cable from the telephone socket. I saw press newspaper a long while back where a lightning bolt damaged bt socket.

Really. I never turn my equipment off. There really isn't any point. I've even bought a small UPS, just for the router / modem, to ensure that when the power starts going on and off (I'm out in the sticks here), the power is maintained to them both.

You'll find industry doesn't unplug its network connections either. Believe me when I say that if your house wiring / phone line gets struck by lightning, it doesn't matter whether it was plugged in or not. Lightning makes a very big mess i.e. its rewire the whole house time. As for surge protectors stopping a lightning strike, dream on. Spikes, surges maybe but a lightning strike, not a hope. Seen several lightning hits on buildings and it isn't a pretty sight.

[#6]

I guess it depends on how close to a property a strike hits the telephone cable, which will be immediately vaporised. The strike will then find it's way to ground. The vast proportion of supposed hits on buildings are nothing of the kind but damage caused by the surge on telphone and power cables from a strike in the vicinity or the diffence in earth potential at the strike site and the earth reference location. If a domestic property receives a direct hit then part of the property will most probably be missing and a failed router will be a very minor issue.

[#7]

A direct hit isn't necessary.

Due to "penny pinching", a 30m ethernet cable was run about 20ft above ground (it had to go over a roadway) instead of the preferred fibre option. A few months later, a single lightning strike hit the ground nearly half-mile away (the middle of a common) and the link failed - with the driver chips at each end having a very neat conical hole above the blown circuitry! We had the fibre installed shortly after!

Phil