Protect ADSL phone lines from power surges....

[4evermaat]

It seems like lightning may have struck twice. The first time there was some lightning near my house, the asus modem router shut off, never to come back on again. No other appliances were affected. It was plugged directly into a wall outlet (no surge protector), so I couldn't be sure how the modem was affected. Then just yesterday the 3bb modem that was just purchased maybe a week ago was disabled when the loud thunder happened again. In this case, the modem itself still powered on, but the dsl internet would not connect. Trouble-ticket into 3bb and they came out today with the test modem and replacement modem in hand. No problems after the swap. Then I decided to do a search for power surge / lightning surge on phone lines on google to see if phone lines are protected. Doesn't seem so in many cases.

The main breaker is grounded and I've had situations more recently (last 4 months or so) where the master circuit breaker will trip even when it is not raining heavy. It was annoying, but I'm happy if the breaker is doing its job.

While I don't mind getting free replacement modems for the time being, how do I protect against power surges to the ADSL line? It just seems to run right into the house from the outside. Is 3bb supposed to have something installed to ground the ADSL line? Is there something I can do to ground it or offer some protection? Thanks.

Note: I had dlink router connected to 3bb modem LAN port and that was completely unaffected. Only the 3bb router malfunctioned after the storm.

[NeverSure]

Have your googled for power surge protector for phone line? There are lots of them available.

Off topic. Are you saying you have two routers working in the same home network?

[KittenKong]

When thunder is likely always disconnect the lead from the modem to the phone wall socket. The phone line is much more likely to conduct a surge into your modem than the power lines are, and modems are notoriously sensitive to surges on the phone line.

My clients back in Europe (well, the ones who didnt listen to me) often had this problem during storms. The ones who disconnected hardly ever had problems.

[RichCor]

The 'Thai' recommendation is to unplug EVERYTHING during a lightning storm. Not only from the power, but:

Sat box from Sat Antenna

Cable box from cable service

Modem from adsl telephone cable

Computers from Ethernet cable

TV from DVB set top box or antenna

And these are just plain weird: During an electrical storm, don't use your

Mobile Phone

Computer connected to WiFi

Gas cooker

According to the Internet and Electronic System Protection Specialists:

A lightning strike is an electric discharge on a massive scale between the an earth-bound object and the atmosphere. They mostly originate on the ground, where the Earth surface charges race towards the flash channel during discharge. and terminate in the thundercloud

The secondary effects of lightning cause transient overvoltages in two main ways: resistive coupling and inductive coupling.

Resistively coupled transients are caused by differences in potential between two connected earths. Lightning strikes to, or near to a building will cause the local earth to rise to a very high potential. Other buldings, even neighbouring ones, will be at a much lower potential. Often these two earths, or equipment referenced to them, are linked by a power or (conducting) data communications line causing the difference in potential to be shared between the line and the equipment at each end. The voltage across the components of the equipment is a transient overvoltage.

Inductively coupled transients are caused by electromagnetic pick-up. Lightning discharges create an electromagnetic field. If a power or data communications line passes through this EM field then a portion of its voltage can be picked up by, or induced onto, the line. As before this transient overvoltage will appear across components within the equipment.

Telephones, modems, computers and other electronic devices can be damaged by lightning, as harmful overcurrent can reach them through the phone jack, Ethernet cable, or electricity outlet. Close strikes can also generate electromagnetic pulses (EMPs) – especially during "positive" lightning discharges.

Many types of electronic parts (diodes, transistors, ICs) contain extremely thin internal wires which connect the silicon components to the heavier external wires of a circuit board. A large surge of electric current can vaporize the thin wires in the same way as a fuse is vaporized by overcurrent.

Lightning currents have a very fast rise time, on the order of 40 kA per microsecond.

Your ADSL drop wire should have one of these over-voltage (surge) arrestors already attached to a ground-rod on the outside of your building.

But your best bet is to unplug the damn thing.

Some portions of text used for this extremely unnecessarily long post was plagiarized from the Internet. While I could have written or rewritten it, I'm being a lazy bastard and I wish to apologize at this time to the Internet for any harm this theft of intellectual property may have caused it.

[Sandman77]

I use a complete system

To protect DSL line also

And have our battery when the light goes out and the nabour hood sit in the darkness I. Am still online and watching tv

Www.apc.com

Brand American power company

I can send when someone need it

[dddave]

Many of the better UPS units have both power and in/out phone line protection. Years ago, in the US I once lost almost $10,000 of office fax and phone equipment because of a phone line surge.

It used to be that TV's could be fried by a surge coming in from an outdoor antennae hit by lightning. I have never heard of a TV or set top box being damaged by a surge off a cable TV line. Has anybody ever experienced that?

[MediaWatcher]

KittenKong, on 13 Oct 2014 - 23:27, said:

When thunder is likely always disconnect the lead from the modem to the phone wall socket. The phone line is much more likely to conduct a surge into your modem than the power lines are, and modems are notoriously sensitive to surges on the phone line.

My clients back in Europe (well, the ones who didnt listen to me) often had this problem during storms. The ones who disconnected hardly ever had problems.

Thunder doesn't do the damage. the lightning does, you may not hear the thunder, but the lightning can travel long distances along either/both the power lines and/or the telephone lines. The OP seems to indicate it came along the phone lines, as there was nothing else affected. Any solution would need a good earth, some extension power boards come with phone line surge protection built in, having said that, there are overvoltage protection modules available, usually mounted on an outside wall, but as stated, you need a good earth, but as we know, this concept is foreign to most Thai electricians.

[WhizBang]

I use a UPS that also has a phone line sure protector built in. Never had a problem.

In addition to my computer, I also have my HDTV, media player, DVD/Surround system, router and phone plugged into it. Any power outage lasting more than about 2 minutes, and I shut everything down. My UPS can handle everything on for about 15 minutes, but better safe than sorry.

[KhnomKhnom]

I say again.........

to obtain any effective surge protection to phones or AC lines, your "surge protector" must be connected to ground/earth/dirt on the THIRD pin of the protector.... usually a strip line of sockets with a short power cord to plug in to the wall. If the third pin of this strip socket does not connect to ground, you have no effective surge protection..... NONE.

The same fact is true with UPS battery back-up devices that may have a surge protection built in........ no ground, no protection.

Why is this such a difficult concept?

[bluesofa]

The 'Thai' recommendation is to unplug EVERYTHING during a lightning storm. Not only from the power, but:

Sat box from Sat Antenna

Cable box from cable service

Modem from adsl telephone cable

Computers from Ethernet cable

TV from DVB set top box or antenna

And these are just plain weird: During an electrical storm, don't use your

Mobile Phone

Computer connected to WiFi

Gas cooker

According to the Internet and Electronic System Protection Specialists:

A lightning strike is an electric discharge on a massive scale between the an earth-bound object and the atmosphere. They mostly originate on the ground, where the Earth surface charges race towards the flash channel during discharge. and terminate in the thundercloud

The secondary effects of lightning cause transient overvoltages in two main ways: resistive coupling and inductive coupling.

Resistively coupled transients are caused by differences in potential between two connected earths. Lightning strikes to, or near to a building will cause the local earth to rise to a very high potential. Other buldings, even neighbouring ones, will be at a much lower potential. Often these two earths, or equipment referenced to them, are linked by a power or (conducting) data communications line causing the difference in potential to be shared between the line and the equipment at each end. The voltage across the components of the equipment is a transient overvoltage.

Inductively coupled transients are caused by electromagnetic pick-up. Lightning discharges create an electromagnetic field. If a power or data communications line passes through this EM field then a portion of its voltage can be picked up by, or induced onto, the line. As before this transient overvoltage will appear across components within the equipment.

Telephones, modems, computers and other electronic devices can be damaged by lightning, as harmful overcurrent can reach them through the phone jack, Ethernet cable, or electricity outlet. Close strikes can also generate electromagnetic pulses (EMPs) – especially during "positive" lightning discharges.

Many types of electronic parts (diodes, transistors, ICs) contain extremely thin internal wires which connect the silicon components to the heavier external wires of a circuit board. A large surge of electric current can vaporize the thin wires in the same way as a fuse is vaporized by overcurrent.

Lightning currents have a very fast rise time, on the order of 40 kA per microsecond.

Your ADSL drop wire should have one of these over-voltage (surge) arrestors already attached to a ground-rod on the outside of your building.

But your best bet is to unplug the damn thing.

Some portions of text used for this extremely unnecessarily long post was plagiarized from the Internet. While I could have written or rewritten it, I'm being a lazy bastard and I wish to apologize at this time to the Internet for any harm this theft of intellectual property may have caused it.

Why do you suggest it is better to remove the surge arrestor on the dropwire?

[RichCor]

[...]

Your ADSL drop wire should have one of these over-voltage (surge) arrestors already attached to a ground-rod on the outside of your building.

But your best bet is to unplug the damn thing.

Why do you suggest it is better to remove the surge arrestor on the dropwire?

Sorry, poor text positioning and poor decision to use the 'it' pronoun on my part. I would have done better to lead with the 'disconnect it all' and end with the 'should have already attached, anyway' text and graphic.

The telephone company, when installing the dropwire, installs the over-voltage arrestor and ground-stake. This is considered a life-saving device and is part of their private equipment, It should never be modified, tampered with, nor removed. Nor should it's ground-stake be used for any additional purpose.

Back on the topic, While our household unplugs devices that are not in use we also continue to watch TV and use the Internet during electrical storms. We tend to quickly unplug only when either the storm severity increases dramatically or when power variations are present. Pressing our luck, probably. Though we have not suffered any equipment loss to date, but then the items I self-insure are low cost.

For lightning and electrical safety measures, of both equipment and human, nothing beats having a properly configured grounding system and use of ELCB, RCCB, RCBO and RCD devices on the incoming power mains to provide either Power Shunting or Isolation protection.