[OT] Wireless sile sharing

I had that happen twice over the years, on two different PC's. In both cases I added a PCI NIC, but your wireless link should work, too.

Did you install the netbeui protocol for your wireless NIC?

Better yet, I would dump netbeui all around and set up file sharing over TCP/IP.

I just got back from the PC store. I bought a cardbus 10/100 NIC for $15 and installed it. It worked just fine right out of the box. And now the wireless PC can see the wired PC. So I don't know what the problem was earlier when I tried to get the wireless PC to see an older PC that I just hooked up to test the aftermath.

What happened last evening was really strange. Lightning struck a tall wild cherry tree in my neighbor's back yard ... probably 150 feet from our house. The DirecTV HD receiver died (wouldn't even power up) but the other two non-HD receivers are fine. Both PCs that were hardwired to the router lost connectivity. At first I thought either the cable modem or the router got fried. But I hooked an older PC up to the router and it connected to the internet just fine. So it looks like both PCs that were connected to the router when the lightning struck have lost their NICs.

Go figure...

Just out of curiosity, do you have a grounding block where your cable enters the house ?

I don't know. What should I look for? Something mounted on the brick wall just before the cable goes thru the wall?

I just found it strange that if the surge did come thru the cable, it went right thru the modem and the router without doing any damage to them.

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You mentioned using file sharing over TCP/IP. From the end user perspective, what differences will I notice? Will I still be able to use Windows Explorer to get to folders on the other PC? Will an old WinNT4.0 PC still be visible? I primarily use file sharing for backing up folders and using the common printer. Can you provide a link that provides details, as this is really off topic.

Normally it would be mounted right at the entrance to the house and is just a way to ground the shielding to your house electrical ground. It should be the first thing that the cable connects to and is probably a straight-thru connector that is then wired off to a ground somewhere.

Mine comes in right next to the electric panel and is just grounded to it with a length of heavy wire. It's just inside my access panel for the cable line which comes up from the ground to the splitter which disseminates the signal to the various rooms (with the grounding block just before the splitter - the first thing the cable sees).

Try right clicking on a drive in Explorer and select Properties, then Sharing. You can always go to the desktop and click F1 to get help and search for sharing or click on the "Learn more about sharing and security." on the sharing tab.

Yes, it is grounded. It appears to be clamped to the same ground as the electric.

OK. I'll take a look. I guess I would need to delete all the existing shares and disable netbeui on all network interfaces. Then go back and set up the shares again.

Thanks...

Clamp to earth implies a surge was not incoming on cable. Surge could have been outgoing on cable. First surge current flows through everything in a path (circuit). Later only one item in that path might be harmed.

An example to demonstrate another potential surge circuit. Lightning struck a tree. A horse many yards away died from that lightning strike. First follow the circuit. Lightning must form a complete electrical circuit from cloud, through tree, and into earth connecting to charges maybe miles away. Lightning selects the electrically shortest path. Not miles across the sky to those earthborne charges. Shortest distance electrically is directly down to the tree, and then miles inside earth.

A shortest path also was up a horse's hind legs and down its fore legs. The longer distance is an electrically shorter path that killed the horse. Horse suffered a direct lightning strike. If any household utility is earthed someplace else (not at same ground rod used by AC electric and cable), then the house may have 'hind legs' where that someplace else is; 'fore legs' where cable and AC electric is earthed. Like the horse, household appliances were also electrocuted by lightning earthed via a nearby tree.

Current flows through everything in that path. Later after current is flowing in the entire circuit, then something (the weakest component) fails. Implied is a weakest component was something on the NIC. Best evidence is always the dead body. What NIC component was harmed?

Some other appliances also were in a path from cloud to earthborne charges. Appliances that did not complete that path (maybe had better internal protection) were not damaged. Yes, surge might be incoming on AC electric, through motherboard, out via NIC, into modem and out to earth ground via cable. All items conducted a same current simultaneously. But the NIC was the weak link.

Normal may be a cable modem conducting surge current to earth and without damage. Or overstress - other components fail maybe one month later. Just because something is undamaged does not mean a surge did not pass through.

Did lightning only strike a tree or did it also fork off to strike AC electric wires? Post implies two AC electric wires are not earthed. AC is a perfect path for surges to get inside everywhere - but only conducting through appliances that provided a better connection to earth. Some appliances could have been acting as surge protectors for others - earthing surge current so that other appliances were not harmed.

The 1394 adapter won't work anymore on either PC. The notebooks appear to be working fine otherwise.

It could have. There is a power pole about 40 feet from the tree. But the surge then would have had to go from my neighbor's house 200 feet back down to the street, across the main power lines 200 hundred feet to where my power line taps in, and 300 feet back up to my house.

I also have underground electric running from my house to the barn out back. So I suppose the surge could have traveled thru the earth into my house.

I just checked the circuit on the HD satellite receiver with a tester and it is grounded. I'll double check the other outlets for the 2 PCs and the cable modem and router. But I have no reason to believe they are not grounded.

I wonder if the telephone wiring in the house wasn't also somehow involved. Besides being plugged in to the electrical outlet (via a surge suppressor), the HD receiver is also plugged into a phone line. And my phone line did act up later that evening (no dial tone for an hour). I think the satellite receivers only use the phone line for pay-per-view, which I never use. So maybe I should just unplug those for now.

Thanks for your comments about completing the circuit first and the "weakest link" then failing. I hadn't thought of that but it makes sense.

Grounding for safety is not same as grounding for surge protection. Grounding lightning requires a short connection (ie 'less than 10 feet'). No sharp bends, No splices. Wire not inside metallic conduit. All ground connections separate until all meet at the single point ground. Ground wires never bundled with other non-grounding wires. Grounding must both meet and exceed post 1990 code requirements. Safety grounded outlets are not sufficient earth ground for these and other reasons.

All incoming wires must make that short (visually inspected) connection to the same earth ground electrode - also called the single point earth ground. Single point earthing is so important that a utility describes how to correct it:

Is telephone involved? Well, the telco installs a 'whole house' protector for free. Unfortunately, if a surge is permitted inside the house (more often by AC electric wires), then outgoing surge path may be that phone line. This is the most common reason (circuit) for modem failure. Incoming on AC electric. Through modem. Outgoing to earth via phone line. Damage is more common on the weakest link - telephone wire side of modem. So many just assume that the surge entered on phone line because damage was on phone line side. Too many assume surges crash onto electronics like waves on a beach. Electricity does not work that way.

Earthing a surge before it can enter the building is called secondary protection. Every wire in every incoming cable must make that 'less than 10 foot' earthing connection either directly (satellite dish, cable TV) or via a protector (telephone, AC electric). Primary surge protection should also be inspected:

Do not assume a safety ground is earth ground. Critical is something called wire impedance. Wires can have low resistance (resistance is a function of wire diameter). But for proper earthing, that wire must also have low impedance (impedance is more a function of wire length, sharp bends, etc). Why does that incoming cable drop down to earth ground before rising back up to enter the building? Wire must first make a very short connection to earth - for surge protection.