Driveway Lightning - John Dunn, Consultant, Ambertec, P.E., P.C.

One spring, a thunderstorm came through here during which this tremendous lightning bolt was unleashed.

I think the lightning strike must have been right in my driveway. It was broad daylight, but the flash of light was vivid. The sound of the thunderclap was immediate and LOUD!! The living room television lost its cool and started reprogramming itself for automatic tuning to the available TV channels.

Later on, I found that the cable modem for my PC had gone to that grand e-cycling place in the sky.

I called the cable company, my ISP, who came over and confirmed that my modem had indeed given its all. They proved this by putting one of their own modems in place of my own which made everything work okay.

However, I was then told that I was going to have to wait until my own defunct modem was shipped off to its manufacturer in Illinois and a replacement one was sent back, a process that ended up taking several weeks during which time I was without a modem and was completely off line,

As far as I know, there were no reports in the news that these events and situation had caused any nations to rise or fall during that time, but it was one major inconvenience for this writer.

The cautionary tale to be told after all of this is to find out how your ISP will handle an equipment failure problem.

In the event of modem damage such as I sustained, how exactly will they proceed?

Will you be able to obtain a replacement right away or will you have to wait and wait and wait and........?

Comments

[John Dunn]

At the time, my ISP just would not replace the ruined modem and I was simply off-line, a situation about which they just did not care. It was my own hard luck so far as they were concerned.

Interestingly however, a few years later when another modem broke down, this time for reasons unknown, there was this store front they'd set up in a nearby town where I ***was*** able to get a replacement modem right away.

In the intervning time, alternative ISPs had started doing business in this locality.

Was there a connection there?? Hmmmmm? (No pun intended.)

[George Storm]

It should all depend on the contract. My phone+internet business provider gives two-day service for "faults" - but defines a fault in the small print as "no service", so line faults that 'merely' reduce service to a virtually unusable 100kb/s often take an extra day.

Curiously, the service on my home line is (in practice) usually faster; probably a side-effect of European-style regulation

Whatever the contract, zero service should entitle you to a refund - unless the contract excludes "acts of god", in which case you were technically responsible for the replacement (and provision by the ISP was a "goodwill concession").

Personally, I think it worth upgrading from most ISP routers anyway, as this provides additional firewall and services. That also gives you an immediate back-up. (If you don't need extra features, 'basic' wireless ADSL routers start at about $17)

[John Dunn]

The contract was worthless to me.

A technician came over right away (the next day, if memory serves) and so "action" was taken within one day, thus justifying the ISP's claim of having provided quick service.

Unfortunately, the completion of that action was going to take, and did take, several weeks while my modem was shipped to the manufacturer's facility in Illinois, repaired and then shipped back to me.

Tryinng to argue about that was hopeless. My inputs were met with obfuscation and sophistry. After all, what was I going to do about it? Sue them? Some fat chance I'd have and they knew that.

Anyway, that was then. Later on when another modem failure happened and there was more than one ISP available in this area, the service response of my ISP was timely and appropriate.

[Bill Kimmel]

Personally, if they told me I was going to have to wait two weeks for a replacement, I would tell them to remove all their hardware and cancel my subscription immediately, then switch to satellite for TV and phone line for Internet.

Actually, in my case, I also have wireless access, so a little cable downtime wouldn't bother me so much, but my wife would be in pain.

I was 15 feet from a lightning strike many years ago, I can relate to your description.