Where did the power surge come from that knocked out my network adapter?

[Mokles]

Hi All,
Bit of a strange topic question but bear with me. A couple of months ago my network adapter was knocked out after thunderstorms At the weekend I was going to connect a power surge protector where previously, I thought, I only had an ordinary extension cable with sockets, however when I unplugged everything and retrieved the said cable and sockets from behind the computer cupboard it turned out to be surge protected. So, here's where my question comes in, the pc was plugged into the surge protector but the router was plugged into and adjacent powerline adapter (so not surge protected), so would the network adapter have been knocked out by a surge coming through the router or did it come through the pc? In which case either the surge protector I have isn't working or it wasn't a surge and just coincidence that the network adapter didn't work right after the thunderstorm.

 

[AWS]

The surge could have come through the network cable. Your internet service starts outside your house and it could have been the source of the problem. I had a DSL modem get knocked out during a thunderstorm. It very easily could have traveled farther and knocked out the network card.

 

[Mokles]

So are you saying it could have come through the router, even though that wasn't affected?

 

[AWS]

Yes. Electricity from lightning strikes can be unpredictable. It could have traveled right through the router without causing damage although that is a rarity.

 

[Mokles]

Thank you for that info.