Hi! Tonight we had a freak storm, one clap of thunder, and a lightning strike somewhere nearby. We had no chance to shut off our computers before this happened. There was a quick bright blip near both towers, which are in different rooms of the house. Both are connected to the same modem via cables. The wi-fi signal was not affected, but both desktop computers are now disconnected from the Internet. Mine gives a message that there is no Ethernet Connection available and to check the cable or plug one on; the other machine has a similar but less specific message. Nothing else is wrong with either machine.
We are not sure if the cables are fried, or if there is a part inside the modem that is fried, or if the ethernet cards in both machines are fried. There was no smell or anything indicating electrical type damage to either machine. This happened to us a while back and literally fried the internal parts of my computer, and it had to be replaced. It happened again when lightning struck a tree in our yard and fried the outside equipment (wi-fi was down then), but the indoor equipment was fine. This is the third time we have been affected by lightning (we have powerful surge suppressor a now),and I am hoping the problem is not in the machines themselves.
My question is this: Is it more likely that the problem now is in the cables, the modem, or the machines themselves? What kind of repairs are we looking at having to do if it is the machines?
We are not sure if the cables are fried, or if there is a part inside the modem that is fried, or if the ethernet cards in both machines are fried. There was no smell or anything indicating electrical type damage to either machine. This happened to us a while back and literally fried the internal parts of my computer, and it had to be replaced. It happened again when lightning struck a tree in our yard and fried the outside equipment (wi-fi was down then), but the indoor equipment was fine. This is the third time we have been affected by lightning (we have powerful surge suppressor a now),and I am hoping the problem is not in the machines themselves.
My question is this: Is it more likely that the problem now is in the cables, the modem, or the machines themselves? What kind of repairs are we looking at having to do if it is the machines?