I just experienced a nasty lightning storm outside my apartment, and before it hit, I heard a popping noise near my router and modem. My PC and modem seem perfectly fine, but my router has completely stopped working—the lights won't turn on, and the Wi-Fi went down immediately after the storm. I'm currently connected directly to the modem to post this. I thought the coaxial connection might make the modem more susceptible to damage than the router, so I'm baffled about how the router could be toast while the modem survived. Any tech-savvy folks out there have insights on what might have happened?
3 Answers
It's definitely weird, but not impossible! Lightning strikes can cause strange and unpredictable electrical surges. Sometimes only specific devices get fried while others remain intact.
You might want to try replacing the router's power supply (the wall plug). It's often the first thing to go when there's a surge, and your router could still be fine!
Yeah, lightning is super weird! I had a close strike once where it fried my land-line modem but left my PC and other gear untouched. Every device reacts differently, so it's really unpredictable.
For real! I've seen it melt coaxial cables while the connected devices remained unscathed. It's like a game of Russian roulette with electronics!