Posted: 5/31/2007 2:07:26 PM EDT
UPS systems rock!  Lights go out, lightning flashes, big kabooms and old Bessie keeps hummin' right along... |
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I've got my cable running through a surge arrestor and a secondary filter. Cable lines have certain standards with respect to how much noise & transient spikes they can withstand, but a direct strike can nuke pretty much anything (of course with wireless you are protected) |
ouch. Good thing I'm wireless these days. In the days before windows 98 I worked in a PC repair shop we had at least 2-3 computers come in after a thunderstorm. 95% of the time it was a fried modem |
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I used to run the dormatory network at a small college. Occasionally, ports on our network switches would burn out and stop working. No problem. We had a call from a student that his internet wasnt working and we narrowed it down to a dead switch port. Changed him to another one and he was good to go. Out of curiosity we asked him if he had done anything to it that might had fried the port. We weren't accusing, but we were trying to figure out of there was a common element we could warn students about to keep it from happening in the future. The student stated that during a recent storm he had his window open. Lightning came through his window and struck his montor and thats when his internet stopped working. His computer and his network card and everything in his room functioned perfectly except his internet. We told the guy he didn't need to lie about this as we weren't there to accuse him of doing anything intentionally to the network but he stuck with his story!  -Foxxz |
When I said "wireless internet", I wasn't kidding. It's an EVDO card in my laptop. The only way I'm going down is if lightning strikes the cell tower I happen to be connected to. |
You would be better off than most then. WTF are you on EVDO? I want your wireless plan. ETA: Second thought, how much $ is your wireless plan first. |
EVDO yes, but not by choice. I live waaaaaay out in the boonies, and it's my only option. With taxes and all that jazz, I'm paying ~$80 a month. Speeds are around 900k/100k with an external antenna. It's faster than sattelite, it's actually unlimited (no BS, I love Sprint) and hey - I've got internet access just about everywhere.
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On an entirely different small college network, we had a serious lightning hit on one of our buildings that did travel through the network. It wrecked out most of the core switches in weird ways. Some ports out, some fine. Some blades completely out, some untouched. The computers at the other end had fun too. We replaced a few dozen network cards, maybe half a dozen motherboards. I've had a machine I owned get hit through the power line though. That was cool. Kinda.  Took one IDE cable out, left one fine. Warped the processor and ZIF socket right along with it. That was through a "surge strip" too. Those things are worthless.
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If you're a geek like me, you can broadcast yourself driving (think: dashcam) live on arfcom.  Webcam Windows Media Encoder Sprint EVDO plan Novatel V620 EVDO rev 0 card in laptop Hosted Windows 2003 server, running Windows Media Server
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Depends on the brand. I opened up one Chicom unit and all it had was switches (it was the kind a monitor sat on top of) - no caps, transxzorbs or ANY sort of protective components. Just switches. Reputable brands (TrippLite comes to mind) actually work pretty well (but are not cheap. I think the Isobar with 6 outlets was $50-60 |
I need to find a network bimbette to hook up all the computers. I have Sprint (but have never used any of the Web stuff on the phone, hell I've never sent a text message  Now I am feeling old and depressed. Maybe I will just go to bed. It is after 7... |
Sometimes the unders hurt as bad as the overs
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Indeed, although a line voltage conditioner takes the bite out of sags - this computer has a Tripplite LVC feeding a UPS LC-1200 |
| I used to be on a UPS, but then the battery died on me. Now I just use it as a surge protector. One of these days I might buy a new one I need a higher VA now anyways. I've since gone from a PS that draws a max of 200watts to 620watts, with the monitor I simply wouldn't have enough juice for what I have now. |
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Wait, what? I'm a lousy fucking shot. Seriously though, I am working on a "hat cam".
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