On 2009-05-24, at 04:49, Bil Herd wrote:

> I believe that every component on a PCB that took a hit bad enough  
> to blow
> something up is suspect or may fail or has already failed. : 
> ( Lightning
> breaks most of the conceptions about current flow. (ground, what  
> ground?)

That is correct. And I already have identified a number of devices  
that fail in strange ways. The Linksys access points for example: one  
work rather normally, another one works "sort of" (the eth link goes  
up and after some seconds down). The third works also "sort  
of" (everything is fine until it just locks and have to be power- 
cycled, etc. etc.

> Not sure what an industrial 6 nic router is,

http://linitx.com/viewproduct.php?prodid=11714

Plus shipping... of course it is not a bank breaker but the fact that  
I set it up just three weeeks ago doesn't make me like throw away  
another five hundred bucks or so...

> very familiar with Cisco's and
> the like, I myself would purchase rather than repair almost anything  
> in my
> inventory excepting a power supply, etc.

This device seem to work completely OK, except one burnt ethernet  
port. I am not sure if this had anything to do with it but this  
particular section was connected with an older Cat5 cable. I  
temporarily rerouted the traffic so as to combine two less saturated  
ports into one and to switch the traffic from the damaged port to the  
fred one. Works for now but should not remain so for too long.

Therefore I am looking where to buy those Realtek chips. Mouser don't  
seem to have them, Conrad, Segor neither. I would rip apart a PCI NIC  
as well but since according to the manufacturer's website the chips in  
question were not really designed for add-on cards, I didn't find any  
cheap NICs with them in the local stores either.

> I know it's after the fact but I have had real good luck with a tiered
> lightning protection in my home and business.  They make surge  
> suppressors
> that attach to the main breaker box, I usually but them on dedicated
> breakers so when it does toast the breaker then blows.  From there the
> suppression in the various UPS's etc have less to do.  I have  
> probably 9-10
> UPS's running in the house at any one moment, I run on generator
> occasionally and only let expensive stuff see the gen through a UPS.

I don't have the arrestors or other suppressors in the building  
structure, and I have very limited influence to get those installed in  
the place. I use mostly the APC UPSes to protect from power failures  
and (as in this case) surges. They seem to have done good job. It's my  
first accident like this but now I know that if I ever build a house,  
I shall certainly think about putting something in on the breakers too.

-- 
SD!

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