[geeks] Lightning question

[Charles Shannon Hendrix]

Sun, 23 Jul 2006 @ 10:39 -0500, Lionel Peterson said:

> Quick question: We recently had a serious lightning storm not just
> near by, but actually in our backyard! A tree on our property was
> struck, and now is spread out across the backyard (oddly, the bark was
> "blown off", 

Not that uncommon.  The tree has a lot of water in it, and depending on
the exact nature of the hit, it can superheat and cause instant
expansion, blowing off bark and creating some nasty shrapnel.

> Would it make sense that my 100-150 foot Cat5E cable run from my den
> to my basement switch would "kill" a switch port?

Wires in electrical and magnetic fields are subject to quite a few
interesting effects, some of which might generate enough power to fry
something.

Anyone know what kinds of precautions you can take to help reduce these
types of effects?


-- 
shannon "AT" widomaker.com -- ["All of us get lost in the darkness,
dreamers turn to look at the stars" -- Rush ]