Prepare For Lightning

Lightning strikes or other power events cause much more lasting damage to computers than viruses. Although a storm with lightning could hit almost anytime during the year, we are in the peak season for that now. Even though lightning or other power events can cause considerable damage, you can be prepared.

A surge protector is not usually enough anymore. A surge protector is designed to handle slower and smaller power events. They are fine for protecting many appliances but I prefer better power protection for computers.

In the Triangle area of North Carolina (Raleigh-Durham-Chapel Hill) our power can blink due to construction work. We also face weather that threatens our power. Sometimes our power will stay on but conditions will drop the voltage for a short time.

How can these damage your computer? A power event can damage your computer in three main ways. First it can cause the power supply to burn out earlier than usual. Second it can damage some components of your computer. Third it can cause you to lose information from your computer.

Power supplies in computers take an input signal from an AC line and convert that to various DC voltages. If the input signal drops or surges, then the power supply strains to work with the abnormal input to produce a normal output. This happens each day in ways that we do not always see. This strain over time can cause a power supply to fail prematurely.

You can prevent this premature power supply failure by using AVR or Automatic Voltage Regulation to protect your power. Look for a UPS or Uninterruptible Power Supply with AVR to help keep the power input consistent.

A power event can damage components in a computer through any wired connection. Think about your computer and all the wires connected to it. Which of those wires is protected against lightning or a surge? You might have the power cord running through a surge protector or even a UPS but what about the network cable or the USB cables or others? Every wire connected to your computer should be protected.

People have known for years that phone lines should be run through a surge protector before connecting to the modem on a computer. If you are still using a dial-up connection to the Internet (very few in the Triangle still do) then run your phone line through some kind of protection. If lightning strikes the phone line you do not want it to pass through your computer.

The most common path left open for lightning damage is the cable modem. You might think that a lightning strike will not get past your cable modem but I have seen it happen. Lightning behaves in unpredictable ways. I have seen it ignore a typical path and skip over a fragile piece of equipment to select a distant and more difficult path and damage other equipment. You need to either have a surge protector on the coaxial cable or have the networking cable run through a surge protector. Many UPS manufacturers now have models with pass through ports for network or coaxial wiring. One more advantage to using wireless networking is less exposure to damage through power events.

How could a power event lead to losing data? The most obvious example is when a power surge or lightning strike causes a hard drive to have a total failure. A more common example is when the power blinks more than once close together. If this happens when you have a file open, it is possible to lose data. Did you know that the power can blink so quickly that it does not even make the lights go off? Even though your eyes or the lights might not seem hurt, your computer can be hurt by these very fast blinks.

Preventing data loss from power events involves power protection and an effective backup plan. Power protection is best with a UPS that can communicate with your computer in the event of a power loss. Mac OS X has built-in software for UPS communication that can shut down the computer under conditions that you decide ahead of time. Before a crisis happens test your UPS by unplugging the power cord from the wall outlet. See what happens. Your computer should stay on at least a few minutes and should alert you to the loss of power. It should eventually safely shutdown before the power from the battery in the UPS is depleted. Of course, do not have any critical documents open when you try this.

You will never avoid every threat forever. Design and use an effective plan to backup your important data. Let a consultant from MacVantage work with you on this. Will your business go under if you have a fire that destroys your building and all the computers? Will a copy of your family photos that you cannot replace be safe if your computer is damaged by a flood?