Lightning strikes in Northern NM

The earth experiences over 3.5 trillion lightning strikes per year, some of those end up being close to home.  During times of high lightning activity BlueLink IT invariably sees computer equipment that has been damaged. This can be avoided.

If you see lightning and then hear the thunder within 5 seconds, that storm is around 1 mile away and you should take precautions to protect yourself and your electronics as well.

Shut down and unplug power as well as your network.  Most internet service technologies rely on some form of external connection whether it is a 2 wire telephone line, or a satellite dish, and those provide an excellent path for electricity to follow. They tend to get fried fairly frequently, and often the devices attached to them, as well.

Use colored tape or labels on your connections and train yourself to quickly disconnect and then reconnect your internet service, this along with removing power connections will increase the life of your equipment.