On Tue, Aug 3, 2010 at 5:53 PM, Raper, Jonathan - Eagle <[email protected]> wrote: > 3. During an ACTUAL strike on the structure, the ambient step potential is > several gazillion volts per foot for dozens of yards. Grounding does not > mitigate this fact. Unplugging does not mitigate this fact.
This. We had lightning hit our building once. It fried NICs and hubs all over the place, including in stuff that was switched off. It fried one serial port in one PC (but not the other serial port in the same PC). It causes an electrical outlet with nothing plugged into it to explode out of the wall into little bitty pieces. It fried one phase in a transformer, leaving the other two phases working. It killed AC compressors in the basement. I've also been told by our ISP about an incident where lightning apparently found a fiber cable was the best path to ground, and fried the equipment at one end. "But it's not a conductor." Lighting jumps open air. We're talking millions of volts. At that kind of potential, *everything* is a conductor. Lightning can do whatever the hell it wants to. All bets are off. -- Ben ~ Finally, powerful endpoint security that ISN'T a resource hog! ~ ~ <http://www.sunbeltsoftware.com/Business/VIPRE-Enterprise/> ~
