SteveWords

Tuesday, August 15, 2006

Nerd Note! Lightnin’ and your computer…

This is the time of the year when thunderstorms hit our area. Lightning is your computer’s worst enemy. So you have a surge protector in the power line. Yee-haw! Think about how big a lightning bolt is. See how big your surge protector is. Nuff said, eh? A surge protector helps for little surges, like when your refrigerator starts. A lightning bolt is humongeous.

How do you protect yourself? Easy! Just unplug everything when lightning is near. You can tell the approximate distance away of a strike by counting the seconds between the flash and the thunder sound. Each second is one mile away. If the strike is a couple of miles away you are relatively safe. Any closer and it’s unplug time. This also includes the computer, the monitor and all accessories. You also need to disconnect the modem or ethernet connection as lightning also destroys bunches of modems every year.

Also think about the other things in your home that are electronic. Your TV, clock radio, stereo, VCR, etc all need to be unplugged too. They are in the same position as your computer when it comes to surges, and could even start a fire and burn your house down!

If you are going to be gone you also might want to be disconnecting everything just in case!