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Most of us living in rural France, do not have the luxury of
designing-in a house-wide lightning protection for our computers
and audio visual equipment, unless we are involved in a new-build.
Even then you will also need an IT man on hand to get things right.
The result is that we are faced with the legacy problem of out of
date installations, You know how it is here, you buy an old house
in France and take a year or so renovating and rewiring it. So you
will probably be using your PC a lot, Photos of the build as it
goes on, estimates, emails etc. Well with our computers and TV equipment
being at high risk of damage from lightning strikes here in Summer,
you need to think of Protection.. What happens is that a lightning
strike on a high tension cable, sends an immense surge down the
line or raises ground voltage and then into our domestic set-up.
Modern fuse-boxes trip, but not before the interior wiring circuit
of your home experiences a surge. If your computer is on, then this
surge could damage your system. If the trip at the fuse-box goes
and you are plunged into darkness and the computer screen goes blank,
your computer instantly powers down. If you are unprotected, this
could result in a hard drive being damaged. If you are unlucky,
the hard-drive will cease to function altogether. End of story.
Start again, for if the content of the hard-drive cannot be retrieved,
you will suffer a catastrophic loss of data.
You know the story the FBI can get data off any hard drive. Almost
true, but they have a vast array of equipment and software for that
task, and more importantly vast amounts of Tax Dollars to spend
on getting it back. You don’t... so protect it your computer,
back up your files.
Telephone lines are also extremely susceptible to lightning strike.
The odd melted phone is not too much of a problem, unless you are
holding it, so I would suggest a cordless phone system, and don't
forget that your modem will be connected to the telephone socket
as well. A big enough surge and the modem/router will blow. No more
internet connection. You will need a new modem installed, which
could cost around €40. If you are running an Orange Livebox,
more than likely these days, you will have to pay even more to replace
it.
So what can you reasonably do to protect, your electronic
gadgets, your data... your sanity. The following should do the trick:
- FUSE - Make Sure that the circuit(s) that carry the
power to your sensitive equipment have the correct (modern) fuse
(disjoncteur) fitted, according to French law. If in doubt, consult
a qualified electrician.
- UPS - Buy a good, robust UPS (Uninterruptible Power Supply)
for your computer set-up. This emergency battery pack not only
prtects from power surges, it kicks-in instantaneously when the
power fails, giving you time to save your data, close the applications
you have open and power down your CPU manually and correctly.
The good-ones have telephone connection ports, that allow you
also to connect your modem. These UPS cost around €40-€60
. If you do not have a UPS, then unplug your PC equipment during
a power out, because when the power does come on again,
it can be erratic and may come on and off initially.
- TV - Protect your TV set-up (TV, digibox, Video Recorder
etc. ) particularly if you have a new-style hard-drive DVD recorder.
Try getting another SKY Box if you brought yours from UK. You
can buy a cheaper (and smaller) UPS than the one above (you do
not need as much battery standby power). Look out for INFOSEC's
Zenergy Station, which is available locally. This gives you 4
UPS protected sockets for your digibox, DVD, Video etc. and 2
surge protected sockets for your TV + 1 other device. This will
set you back about €20.
- BACK UP - You need to be religious about this. Back-up
your stuff regularly. A top-end solution would be to buy a portable
hard-drive (around €100 for 400 gigabytes of storage). Carrefour
have them. Also look out for promos from Aldi and Lidl. Just plug
it in, connect to your CPU and back-up. Disconnect it (for protection)
and hide it somewhere else in the house. That way if you get burgled,
or have a hard disk fail, then you will not have lost your files,
family photos etc.
- For
further teccy information about lightning, surge and UPS protection,
visit the Infosec UPS website by clicking this link
If a thunder storm is coming your way, unplug everything! Cheap
and easy, but only good if you are at home to do it.
If you are still unsure what to do, or you get lightning strike
damage to your equipment... or if you just need a health check on
your computer...
Call me on 05.65.40.01.26
danthescan@orange.fr
Remember, lightning CAN And HAS struck the same place twice
when it comes to computers and modems!
Danny O'Donnell
July 2008
www.st-cere.com
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