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Path: utzoo!mnetor!uunet!seismo!rutgers!sri-spam!ames!sdcsvax!ucbvax!VTVM1.BITNET!RANCK
From: RANCK@VTVM1.BITNET ("Wm. L. Ranck")
Newsgroups: comp.dcom.modems
Subject: Lightning and Ma Bell
Message-ID: <8708042054.AA02621@ucbvax.Berkeley.EDU>
Date: Tue, 4-Aug-87 16:36:15 EDT
Article-I.D.: ucbvax.8708042054.AA02621
Posted: Tue Aug  4 16:36:15 1987
Date-Received: Thu, 6-Aug-87 04:44:15 EDT
Sender: daemon@ucbvax.BERKELEY.EDU
Distribution: world
Organization: The ARPA Internet
Lines: 15


   I'm sure someon has responded before this, but here goes.  Voltage
spikes due to lightning can zap a modem attached to you phone line.
I've had it happen to me, and learned that a friend living about
4 houses down the street also lost his modem during the same storm.
These were definitely phone line related.  My modem worked except for
the fact that it was deaf to the phone line.  It responded to
local commands and could even dial, but did not detect voice or carrier
or anything else.  Nothing else was had a problem, only modems were
affected.
   Telephones, at least the old AT&T phones, are *sturdy* and can take a
lot of abuse.  Ever wonder why $10 telephones don't seem to last?  They
can't take a voltage spike, that's why.

Bill Ranck