[debodun]

When I know a thunderstorm is imminent, I always unplug my tower and modem. However, I have heard that this doesn't always protect sensitive electronics as they can still be affected by the EMP of lightning even if they aren't connected to a wall outlet. Is this true?

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I have some experience with this first hand. Lightning struck a tree in my backyard a few years ago. It took out a number of electronics in my house. Communication equipment was hardest hit. Pretty much anything connected to a phone line or ethernet cable had to be replaced. When dial-up was more common, we always saw a lot of reports of dead modems after thunderstorms.

Just doing a little research online now, it seems the electronics have to be fairly close, about 150 feet. It also doesn't appear there's a lot you can do to protect from it. Consumer electronics are just not protected against emp, and most surge protectors and uninterruptable power supplies won't help. The good news is it's not as likely to take out your hard drive or CPU as it is your ethernet card or router. I'd say the damage I experienced was pretty typical. An inconvenience, but not devastating.

Still a good idea to unplug them.

[admin]

I have some experience with this first hand. Lightning struck a tree in my backyard a few years ago. It took out a number of electronics in my house. Communication equipment was hardest hit. Pretty much anything connected to a phone line or ethernet cable had to be replaced. When dial-up was more common, we always saw a lot of reports of dead modems after thunderstorms.

Just doing a little research online now, it seems the electronics have to be fairly close, about 150 feet. It also doesn't appear there's a lot you can do to protect from it. Consumer electronics are just not protected against emp, and most surge protectors and uninterruptable power supplies won't help. The good news is it's not as likely to take out your hard drive or CPU as it is your ethernet card or router. I'd say the damage I experienced was pretty typical. An inconvenience, but not devastating.

Still a good idea to unplug them.

[debodun]

Okay....thanks for the info on EMPs.

[Kemasa]

If you put the items in a Faraday cage, then you can protect it, but that is not all that practical, specially depending on the size of the items.

http://en.wikipedia....ki/Faraday_cage