# Struck by lightning, now no internet



## Mark Parrott (Jun 16, 2016)

Last night l think our house got struck by lightning! There was a massive crash & a huge white glow coming from our Sky hub, followed by a strong smell of burning. Our hub is now destroyed, though oddly nothing else has been damaged. So now we have no internet & mobile internet is virtually impossible at home. Can't contact Sky for a new hub as we are leaving them for Plus Net on the 26th. So looks like we will have to find other things to do for the next 10 days.


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## Northerner (Jun 16, 2016)

Grr! Sorry to hear this Mark! You can get 'dongles' from Three with 1gb of data which I used to get when my ordinary interweb was down. My TV once got blown up by a lightning strike - just before Christmas!


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## trophywench (Jun 16, 2016)

Have a nice holiday Mark!  LOL


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## Stitch147 (Jun 16, 2016)

Invest in some adult colouring books they will help pass the time.

This is one of my personal favourites! 

https://www.amazon.co.uk/Sweary-Col...357&sr=8-4&keywords=swear+word+colouring+book


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## Mark Parrott (Jun 16, 2016)

Northerner said:


> Grr! Sorry to hear this Mark! You can get 'dongles' from Three with 1gb of data which I used to get when my ordinary interweb was down. My TV once got blown up by a lightning strike - just before Christmas!


I don't think a 3 dongle will work at home as our phone signal is very poor there. One of the drawbacks of living in the sticks.


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## Northerner (Jun 16, 2016)

Mark Parrott said:


> I don't think a 3 dongle will work at home as our phone signal is very poor there. One of the drawbacks of living in the sticks.


Annoying!  Three does have the best coverage, but no good if your signal is weak, would just drive you mad


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## Martin Canty (Jun 16, 2016)

All our essential electronics are protected with UPS & surge protectors:

Wife's 60 inch TV
Wife's TV in the spare room (where she gets dressed in the morning)
Wife's home theater system
Wife's Amazon Fire Stick
Wife's Satellite receivers
My internet cable box & laptops


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## KookyCat (Jun 16, 2016)

Oh crikey, at least it wasn't all the electrics so you can entertain yourself without having to rely on candles 

@Martin Canty your wife likes her technology then!


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## Martin Canty (Jun 16, 2016)

KookyCat said:


> wife likes her technology then!


I remember one winter, during a big storm (we got 5' of snow), power was out for most of the valley for a few days & I was working at the Fire Station..... Got a panic call from the wife "My iPad is out of power, what do I do?".... "Uh, go to the car & plug it into the car charging port!!!!"


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## Northerner (Jun 16, 2016)

We've had thunderstorms here today and my connection has become a bit dodgy


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## trophywench (Jun 16, 2016)

They dug up our cable on the corner of the street on Monday, interweb out most of the day afterwards.  A few jobs got done that probably wouldn't have done otherwise - it can be a blessing!


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## AndBreathe (Jun 17, 2016)

Mark Parrott said:


> I don't think a 3 dongle will work at home as our phone signal is very poor there. One of the drawbacks of living in the sticks.



Do you have an old Sky hub you could use?  My neighbour had something similar - she was with TalkTalk, moving to Sky (curiously).  As an interim measure, I lent her a generic, Belkin router and just added her TalkTalk settings.  It took longer to find what the settings had to be on t'internet than it did to do the configuration.  A further few minutes were used reconnecting her Sky tv box to the wifi.

The old router isn't the fastest in the world, but as a stop-gap, it worked well.

There are loads of Sky hubs on eBay for very little money, but that may not be quick enough.

Have you joined your local Streetlife site?  There could be someone local who would sell an obsolete (to them) Sky hub for a few pennies.  I have several BT Hubs (as well as the Belkin,.......... ahem) here.  If you were close, I'd offer you the Belkin.  It owes me nothing.


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## Copepod (Jun 17, 2016)

How much time do you need online? If you can manage with say 1 hour every few days, for next 10 days, then the strategy I used for 6 weeks between moving into new house and getting broadband connected might work: free WiFi at McDonalds. I bought a coffee or meal each time and installed myself in a back corner, out of way. Staff were obviously used to people doing that and were welcoming.


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## KookyCat (Jun 17, 2016)

Martin Canty said:


> I remember one winter, during a big storm (we got 5' of snow), power was out for most of the valley for a few days & I was working at the Fire Station..... Got a panic call from the wife "My iPad is out of power, what do I do?".... "Uh, go to the car & plug it into the car charging port!!!!"



I like the cut of her cloth, technology is our friend . Course now I need to buy a car for use as an emergency battery, can't drive one but I think I need the back up!

Mark, do you get mobile reception?  Can you tether to your mobile phone?  Depends on the cost contract wise and the signal strength (are you 4g?) but works well in an emergency I've discovered.


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## Diabeticliberty (Jun 17, 2016)

Stitch147 said:


> Invest in some adult colouring books they will help pass the time.
> 
> This is one of my personal favourites!
> 
> https://www.amazon.co.uk/Sweary-Col...357&sr=8-4&keywords=swear+word+colouring+book




I really have doubts about you young lady


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## Diabeticliberty (Jun 17, 2016)

2 empty coke cans and a large ball of string will sort out a phone connection for you. As regards entertainment? An old cornflakes box with the front panel torn off it and you can become really adept at mini street theatre. My granddad tells me that he used to have loads of fun with a piece of wood and a spider but he was a crackpot and they took him away in a straightjacket.  Anyway Mark sorry to drag on, I must be away now as I have a dozen box sets to watch that I recorded on Sky last night


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## AndBreathe (Jun 17, 2016)

Mark - Do you have a neighbour with wifi?  If you look for wifi networks on your phone/tablet/pc, do any networks come up around you?

If you do, perhaps your neighbour would give you access to their wifi for a few days?  Their only issue would be if they are on a limited download contract.  He can always drop you from his allowed contacts when you're sorted again.


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## AndBreathe (Jun 17, 2016)

Mark - I've taken your location from your profile, and used that to filter in eBay.  There's this:

http://www.ebay.co.uk/itm/Sky-SR101...298636?hash=item3f64b1928c:g:zeIAAOSwepJXVHiQ

In your shoes, I might contact the seller and ask if he'll take £5 from your hand and allow you to pick the thing up today.  There are literally hundreds of used routers on eBay, so if his sells, it's likely to be for the starting price or maybe £2.  Offering £5 is more than he's get, in my view, and you could be up and running in no time.

All of that assumes your telephone line remains functional?  If it doesn't, then you'll need to engage to have that mended before TalkTalk get involved, or I doubt you'll be up and running immediately you have their kit.

Final though, you could contact TalkTalk and see if they can bring your date forward?  It's usually a background switch over, with no need for an engineer visit.  If they could dispatch your router asap, and adopt the service early?  No idea if that's possible, but assume your date was set to co-ordinate with with your Sky subscription cycle?


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## AlisonM (Jun 17, 2016)

Donner und Blitzen here for the last couple of days, pouring rain (it's still raining now) and no reliable signal as a result that meant I haven't been able to get online for a day or too. The signal is still very poor but seems more stable now. I definitely recommend the surge protectors everywhere and have you got a lightning conductor on your house? If not you might consider getting one.


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## Martin Canty (Jun 17, 2016)

AlisonM said:


> I definitely recommend the surge protectors everywhere


We can get some very violent storms around here (particularly when we have monsoonal flows), from my house I can see at least 3 trees which have been struck by lightening 2 of which I saw happen. My CFL light bulbs never lasted particularly long & my LED bulbs (though more resilient) still don't live up to the claims of longevity.

During bad storms, the fire agencies become very busy running around the valley often lightning strikes will start fires (usually just snags in trees) but sometimes we can get something significant; as a result we tend to extra staff our Fire Station in anticipation of having to go out & play (oops, sorry, meant to say go out & put our lives on the line in defense of the valley)


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## trophywench (Jun 17, 2016)

AlisonM said:


> I definitely recommend the surge protectors everywhere and have you got a lightning conductor on your house? If not you might consider getting one.



I think you'll find that was exactly what his Sky dish and wiring acted as Alison!  Is why in olden days when people had a TV aerial on their eaves or chimney, one unplugged the aerial out of the telly when going on holiday and during storms.


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## AlisonM (Jun 17, 2016)

trophywench said:


> I think you'll find that was exactly what his Sky dish and wiring acted as Alison!  Is why in olden days when people had a TV aerial on their eaves or chimney, one unplugged the aerial out of the telly when going on holiday and during storms.


Precisely why I suggested adding a lighting conductor, as long as it's higher than the dish, lighting always takes the shortest route to ground.


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## Northerner (Jun 17, 2016)

AlisonM said:


> Precisely why I suggested adding a lighting conductor, as long as it's higher than the dish, lighting always takes the shortest route to ground.


Wish someone had told me that before my telly blew up a couple of years ago!


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## Mark Parrott (Jun 17, 2016)

AndBreathe said:


> Do you have an old Sky hub you could use?  My neighbour had something similar - she was with TalkTalk, moving to Sky (curiously).  As an interim measure, I lent her a generic, Belkin router and just added her TalkTalk settings.  It took longer to find what the settings had to be on t'internet than it did to do the configuration.  A further few minutes were used reconnecting her Sky tv box to the wifi.
> 
> The old router isn't the fastest in the world, but as a stop-gap, it worked well.
> 
> ...


Found one on Gumtree for a fiver. Should arrive tomorrow. We do have an old one somewhere but can't find it. I can just about get 3g on my phone upstairs in the spare room.


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## AlisonM (Jun 17, 2016)

Northerner said:


> Wish someone had told me that before my telly blew up a couple of years ago!


You didn't take physics in school then?


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## KookyCat (Jun 17, 2016)

What did we do before the Internet...no really what?  I can't remember!


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## Northerner (Jun 17, 2016)

AlisonM said:


> You didn't take physics in school then?


Actually, I've got an 'O' level in physics, grade B  It would have been an 'A' if I'd been able to answer the question about lightning


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## AndBreathe (Jun 17, 2016)

Mark Parrott said:


> Found one on Gumtree for a fiver. Should arrive tomorrow. We do have an old one somewhere but can't find it. I can just about get 3g on my phone upstairs in the spare room.


Excellent!  £5 well spent.  We become very tethered to the internet these days.  Do you do much business via t'internet?

You'll find all your setting and so on, on the web, if you need them for your new to you hub.


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## Ralph-YK (Jun 17, 2016)

AlisonM said:


> Precisely why I suggested adding a lighting conductor, as long as it's higher than the dish, lighting always takes the shortest route to ground.


I've heard that it takes the easiest rout instead.  Do lighting comductors have a metal wire running to the ground. I suspect that the lightning finds that easier than house tiles.  The Sky disc would also have a metal wire attached to it that, runs into the house.


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## AlisonM (Jun 17, 2016)

Ralph-YK said:


> I've heard that it takes the easiest rout instead.  Do lighting comductors have a metal wire running to the ground. I suspect that the lightning finds that easier than house tiles.  The Sky disc would also have a metal wire attached to it that, runs into the house.


Yes, it's a sort of metal rod that's usually attached to the side of the house with a wire running to the ground, perhaps to a chimney, as long as it's higher than any other metal bits, such as satellite dishes and TV aerials, lightning will always take the shortest route to earth. Anything built since the 70s (I think) is legally required to have one along with all council housing whatever it's age. For older buildings, it's up to the owners.


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## Rosiecarmel (Jun 18, 2016)

Stitch147 said:


> Invest in some adult colouring books they will help pass the time.
> 
> This is one of my personal favourites!
> 
> https://www.amazon.co.uk/Sweary-Col...357&sr=8-4&keywords=swear+word+colouring+book



I LOVE colouring books. Definitely recommend


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## Mark Parrott (Jun 20, 2016)

Back on line.  Router turned up today & works perfectly.


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## Northerner (Jun 20, 2016)

Mark Parrott said:


> Back on line.  Router turned up today & works perfectly.


Woohoo!  So frustrating when you have interweb problems these days - I get huge withdrawals within minutes!  Good to see you back


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## trophywench (Jun 20, 2016)

Good!


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## Diabeticliberty (Jun 20, 2016)

Mark Parrott said:


> Back on line.  Router turned up today & works perfectly.



This place ain't been the same without you but please no more recipes for camel poo cake


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## Mark Parrott (Jun 21, 2016)

Northerner said:


> Woohoo!  So frustrating when you have interweb problems these days - I get huge withdrawals within minutes!  Good to see you back


With no internet, l found out l had Candy Crush on my laptop so now hooked on that.


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